Euroclear Finland’s Infinity Launch Prepares for T2S
Euroclear Finland, the Finnish central securities depository (CSD), is replacing its entire securities processing infrastructure progressively, via three releases.
The first release of the new CSD system, named ‘Infinity’, was launched on February 2. Infinity brings Finnish market one step closer to the new European securities settlement engine
TARGET2-Securities, aka T2S
.
Infinity’s first release replaces the previous fixed income system, known as Ramses. The second release, scheduled for May 2016, will replace the current equity transaction processing systems – HEXClear – as well as the central register. The third release will connect the Finnish market to T2S in the scheduled migration of February 2017.
“Euroclear is making a significant multi-year investment to substantially improve the post-trade infrastructure in the Finnish market,” said Yannic Weber, chief executive officer (CEO) of Euroclear Finland and Euroclear. “Upgrading the core CSD systems brings us closer to readiness for T2S.
“This remarkable market change has been carried out in very close co-operation with our participants. Our continuing objective is to offer better services and flexibility to accommodate the rapidly changing needs of all types of clients.”
“Implementing the Infinity system for the fixed income market has been a tremendous effort for the whole market,” added Mats Råstedt, chairman of the Finnish Market Advisory Committee (MAC). Close cooperation and coordination between Euroclear Finland and the market participants has made this transition possible.
“This is an important milestone on the Finnish market’s roadmap to T2S, and at the same time aligns the Finnish fixed income market with the new European harmonisation standards.”
Hanna Vainio, deputy CEO of Euroclear Finland and Infinity programme sponsor, commented: “We are very pleased that the launch has been such a success. Going live took us less than two years which is a major achievement.
“Infinity itself is a major upgrade that enhances our CSD service offering while supporting the latest European harmonisation standards. These new features will allow clients to streamline their back-office operations which will significantly ease their pan-European post-trade processing. (Also) it is a tribute that Euroclear Finland is the first European CSD to embrace the ISO 20022 message standards for corporate action and settlement activity.”