CLS Group

CLS (originally Continuous Linked Settlement) is a specialist US financial institution that provides settlement services to its members in the foreign exchange market (FX). Although the forex market is decentralised and has no central exchange or clearing facility, firms that chose to use CLS to settle their FX transactions can mitigate the settlement risk associated with their trades.[1]

CLS Group Holdings AG
Edge Act Corporation
IndustryBanking, financial services
Founded2002
HeadquartersNew York City
Area served
Worldwide
Websitewww.cls-group.com

CLS does this through the operation of a payment versus payment (PvP) settlement service which mitigates settlement risk for the FX transactions of its settlement members and their customers (third parties).

The service started operating in 2002 as an Edge Act Corporation, a limited purpose bank regulated by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.[2]

Since it began operations in 2002, CLS has rapidly become the market-standard for foreign exchange settlement. As a result, the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) officially designated CLS a Systemically Important Financial Market Utility in July 2012.[3]

The single day record for gross-value settlement, set on 19 March 2008, stands at US$10.3 trillion, for 1,113,464 payment instructions. The single day record for gross-volume settlement, set on 28 May 2013, is 1,992,652.[4]

In 2002 CLS was launched with 39 Members and seven currencies. As of November 2015 CLS settles 18 Currencies, has 74 Shareholders, 64 Settlement Members and over 9,000 active Third Party participants.

Members include:

References

  1. "BIS report" (PDF). BIS.org. Retrieved 2012-07-01.
  2. "About CLS". Cls-group.com. Archived from the original on 2012-08-24. Retrieved 2012-06-30.
  3. "Financial Stability Oversight Council Makes First Designations in Effort to Protect Against Future Financial Crises". treasury.gov. Retrieved 2012-10-18.
  4. "CLS Bank settles new record value". CLS. March 19, 2008.[dead link]