Euroclear, the European provider of clearing services, has completed its purchase of trade matching and market data firm Xtrakter from the International Capital Market Association (ICMA).
Xtrakter’s TRAX trade matching and reporting system for fixed-income, repo, equity and derivatives transactions is used by more than 300 financial institutions worldwide.
Euroclear already offers an over-the-counter trade matching and routing services via Euroclear Bank as well as Euroclear UK & Ireland’s trade reporting service. Xtrakter will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Euroclear SA/NV and Tim May, chairman of Euroclear UK & Ireland, will become chairman of Xtrakter.
“Our joint efforts will make it possible to automate trade information flows from matching through to settlement. We will eliminate fragmentation and trade matching duplication, while reducing costs and settlement fails. The complementary services offered by Xtrakter and Euroclear will be instrumental in further reducing risks, which is vital given today’s challenging market conditions,” said Ignace R. Combes, deputy CEO of Euroclear SA/NV.
Kevin Milne, Xtrakter’s CEO, said the combined business would reduce post-trade costs for clients. “Xtrakter’s pre-settlement expertise, combined with Euroclear’s highly efficient transaction-settlement capabilities, will provide a competitively priced, full STP service,” he said.
Xtrakter also provides pricing data for12,000 international securities and internationally traded government bonds, as well as securities reference data for more than 150,000 government bonds, corporate bonds, medium-term notes and private derivative issues.
The Euroclear group comprises the international central securities depository Euroclear Bank as well as national central securities depositories Euroclear Belgium, Euroclear Finland, Euroclear France, Euroclear Nederland, Euroclear Sweden and Euroclear UK & Ireland. In 2008, the group settled more than EUR 560 trillion in securities transactions, representing 157 million domestic and cross-border transactions.