FRANKFURT, Germany and NEW YORK, Jan. 27, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Quadriserv, a leading North American provider of innovative securities lending services, and Eurex Clearing, Europe's leading clearing house, announced today that they are co-operating to provide central counterparty (CCP) clearing and settlement services for securities lending of European equities. Eurex Clearing will provide its state-of-the art CCP services to Quadriserv's new securities lending platform, AQS(tm).
Pursuant to the signed Letter of Intent, the Quadriserv / Eurex Clearing partnership will initially create services for trading, clearing and settlement in UK, German and Swiss equities. Eurex Clearing, as central clearing provider, will mitigate counterparty risk and facilitate settlement processing for all clearing members. AQS will provide fully-automated trading and middle office functionality to facilitate centralized, anonymous borrowing and lending activity. This integration will directly benefit European customers by enabling seamless accessibility to AQS, which provides enhanced access, transparency and reporting capabilities to all market participants.
"The steady progress towards a centralized, structured marketplace for securities lending continues unabated, and we firmly believe that the AQS securities lending platform has become an important part of this evolving landscape," said Thomas J. Perna, Quadriserv's Chief Executive Officer. "To that end, we are pleased to complement our U.S. capabilities with the addition of our Eurex partnership, which greatly expands the reach and distribution of our AQS platform to European markets."
Thomas Book, member of the Eurex Executive Board responsible for clearing, said, "We are very pleased to cooperate with Quadriserv to further expand our industry-leading clearing services. The combination of the AQS platform and our securities lending offering highlights Eurex Clearing's leading role in creating a European market standard."
The Quadriserv / Eurex relationship advances important organizational objectives of both firms. This arrangement complements and expands Quadriserv's previously announced clearing and settlement relationship with The Options Clearing Corporation ("OCC") for U.S. equities, which will commence U.S. operations in early 2009.
The co-operation also re-emphasizes Eurex Clearing's strategic expansion of its CCP services into securities lending. Europe's leading clearing house previously announced its plans to launch a securities lending clearing service with Clearstream in the second quarter of 2009.
About Quadriserv, Inc.
Quadriserv is a leader in delivering transformational market structure changes to the securities lending industry. Quadriserv, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Automated Equity Finance Markets, Inc., has developed AQS, a centralized platform for securities lending. AQS, through its relationship with The Options Clearing Corporation, has created a centrally-cleared marketplace for securities lending transactions. As a FINRA registered broker-dealer and an SEC registered Alternative Trading System (ATS), AQS maximizes liquidity, access, credit and transparency while mitigating systemic risk on a stable and secure trading environment. For more information, please visit www.quadriserv.com.
About Eurex Clearing
Eurex Clearing AG is one of the world's leading clearing houses. It offers fully automated and straight-through post trade services combined with an industry-leading risk management for derivatives, equities, repo and fixed income transactions traded at major international exchanges and trading platforms. The offering comprises flexible trade management functions, advanced risk management services, efficient collateral and delivery management tools. As a central counterparty, its focus is to increase market integrity. Eurex Clearing AG is a wholly owned subsidiary of Eurex Frankfurt AG. For more information, please visit www.eurexclearing.com.