BME makes custody and settlement of Swiss securities available to its Spanish clients

• The connection between the Spanish and Swiss CSDs is another step forward in the integration of BME into SIX, Europe's third largest financial market operator
• This development will reduce costs and times for Iberclear's, Spanish BME CSD, participants by simplifying the securities custody chain

Since yesterday, BME, through Iberclear, the Spanish Central Securities Depository, has made the custody and settlement of Swiss securities available to its clients. This will be possible thanks to the link between the Spanish and Swiss central securities depositories. This represents a new step forward in the integration of BME into SIX, the third largest financial markets operator in Europe.

"With the addition of Swiss securities to BME’s cross-border custody and settlement service, financial institutions will have a new tool for improved management of securities post-trade services. In this way we achieve the objective of boosting the Spanish and Swiss financial ecosystems, one of the main goals of the integration, as we broaden the range of services available to our clients," explains Jesús Benito, Head of Domestic Custody & TR Operations, SIX.

From now on, Iberclear’s participants will be able to register and settle securities in the Swiss market, which will act as a single point of access to Target2-Securities (T2S), the pan-European securities settlement platform. As a result, institutions can benefit from reduced costs and processes, as the chain of custody is simplified.

Furthermore, through SIX, Spanish clients can access the 50 plus countries to which the Swiss custodian currently has access. In this way, SIX offers access to a wide range of countries worldwide for the international settlement and custody of its securities.