ABN Amro Rejoins CLS Settlement

After 16 years’ operating as a third-party participant on CLS, ABN Amro has rejoined the FX settlement service as a full CLS Settlement Member, becoming the 74^th bank on the system.

ABN Amro was one of the founding settlement members in 2002 when CLS first launched, but switched to a third-party provider in 2009 after the Global Financial Crisis saw its new owner, Royal Bank of Scotland, rescued by the UK government. CLS says the bank’s recent decision to re-join as a settlement member “highlights its commitment to reducing FX settlement risk and improving operational efficiency through payment-versus-payment (PvP) solutions”.

As part of its renewal as a settlement member, ABN will offer third-party access to CLS Settlement for its clients.

“[ABN Amro’s] decision reflects the wider benefits of CLS’s PvP settlement system, such as our approach to multilateral netting and the in/out swap tool which delivers capital and liquidity efficiencies,” says Lisa Danino-Lewis, chief growth officer at CLS. “Settlement members who use both solutions only fund around 1% of the total value of their payment instructions on a typical day, enabling cash flow to be available for other business operations like trading, sales and business growth.”

Jacco Keijzer, head of global markets at ABN Amro, adds, “Mitigating FX settlement risk has always been a priority for ABN Amro. As a long-standing participant in CLS Settlement, we recognise the value it brings to our operations while supporting our adherence to global best practices. Becoming a settlement member reflects our dedication to creating a more robust and efficient FX ecosystem, while ensuring our FX operations uphold the highest standards of operational efficiency and risk mitigation.”