041027_settlement

Today, Monte Titoli, a Borsa Italiana Group company, processed a record number of transactions through Express II, its new clearing and settlement system.

Express II has been able to handle extraordinarily large volumes, confirming its solidity and efficiency. In fact, 444,971 transactions were settled, corresponding to about five times the average daily volume and exceeding the previous historical record (13 April 2004, 339,004 transactions) by 30%.

Contributing to this record were the volumes generated by the third tranche of Enel shares, by the Telecom Italia Media rights and by the Eurostat 2004/2035 index-linked BTP (long-term treasury bond). More specifically, 1.15 billion shares of Enel's public offering were traded, for a total value of 7.64 billion Euro, while 4 billion Euro's worth (nominal value) of BTP bonds were placed.

Launched in December 2003, Express II was extended to run the clearing and settlement of all financial instruments starting January 2004, in particular government securities and shares, leading to the termination of the "Liquidazione dei Titoli" procedure managed by the Bank of Italy.

Express II is the result of close collaboration among Authorities, markets, central counterparties and operators, with a two-fold objective: completing the upgrading of Italian post-trading structures to international best practices and satisfying the requirements of players on the global financial market.

Over 340 intermediaries participate in the pre-settlement and settlement systems of Monte Titoli, which involve more than 10,000 financial instruments.

Milan, 27 October 2004