Clearstream’s core business continues strong growth in March 2006

Strong growth continued in March for all of Clearstream’s main business areas with assets under custody and Global Securities Financing Services reaching record levels.

In March the number of monthly international transactions processed rose 37 percent to 2.44 million (March 2005: 1.78 million). Of these transactions,
71 percent were Over the Counter (OTC) transactions and 29 percent were registered as stock exchange transactions. Domestic settlement transactions in Germany increased 25 percent reaching 3.85 million compared to 3.09 million for the same period last year. Of these transaction 69 percent were stock exchange transactions and 31 percent OTC transactions.

The value of assets held under custody on behalf of customers rose to a record € 9.1 trillion, a 17 percent rise from March 2005 (€ 7.8 trillion).
Securities held under custody in Clearstream’s international business experienced a rise of 17 percent from € 3.5 trillion to € 4.1 trillion. On the domestic German business, securities held under custody rose by 17 percent from € 4.4 trillion to € 5.1 trillion.

For the Global Securities Financing services monthly average outstandings reached a new record high at € 234.3 billion. The combined services, which include tripartite repo, collateral management and securities lending, collectively experienced a rise of 27 percent from the same month last year (March 2005: € 184.5 billion)

Clearstream Banking's investment funds services also reached record with
336,811 transactions processed, 75 percent more than in March 2005 (192,345). In March Clearstream announced the planned launch of CFF (the Central Facility for Funds) for the second half of 2007 with a pilot beginning end of 2006. CFF is an innovative initiative offering a more efficient post trade solution for investment funds domiciled in Luxembourg, the largest market in Europe for international funds.