LSE trading solution plan published

By THIS IS MONEY
Updated:

 

The London Stock Exchange's plans to merge with Germany's Deutsche Borse have been given a boost as UK settlement house CrestCo published details of a low-cost trading solution for the proposed exchange.

CrestCo, together with its German equivalent Clearstream International, said the solution would mean investors trading on the proposed iX exchange could settle the cost of a cross-border trade at the same low-level as a domestic trade.

Cross-border trades - when shares are bought in a non-UK company - can currently be far more expensive to conduct than domestic trades.

Today's plans would see customers given access to a single integrated settlement process at 'very low cost', CrestCo and Clearstream said.

Don Cruickshank, chairman of the LSE and chairman-elect of iX said: 'This solution is good news for our market users as they seek to drive down costs for their clients. By building on existing arrangements for clearing and settlement, it minimises the cost of central infrastructure and avoids the need for customers of iX-international exchanges to invest in further interfaces to clearing or settlement systems.'

The details come just days after the LSE's proposed merger with Deutsche Borse was threatened by a hostile £847m bid made by OM Group of Sweden. CrestCo is 'studiously neutral' over which exchange the LSE eventually ties the knot with.

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