Lloyds Now Live As New CLS Settlement Member

Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets is now live as a settlement member of CLS (Continuous Linked Settlement), bringing the total number of settlement members to 63.

CLS is a foreign exchange (FX) settlement system for the global banking market, covering 17 of the market's most commonly exchanged currencies with the cooperation of many of the world's largest central banks and leading financial institutions.

As of July this year, CLS has settled an average daily volume of close to 800,000 instructions with an average daily value of US$4.7 trillion in 2011.

Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets became a shareholder in CLS earlier this year after having been a third-party customer for a number of years.

As a settlement member, Lloyds will be able to benefit from the streamlining and standardization of FX operations, designed to reduces costs.

The multilateral netting of the obligations between member banks also delivers a material reduction in the cash funding values required for FX settlement.

Alan Bozian, CEO of CLS Group and president and CEO CLS Bank says settlement risk has long been identified as the greatest risk to the FX market and by helping to minimize this, CLS plays a crucial role in optimising risk management and operational efficiency.