BNY Mellon and ING Join CLSNet

January 18, 2024 - BNY Mellon, the world’s largest custodian bank, and ING, the leading Dutch bank, have agreed to join CLSNet, the bilateral payment netting calculation service by CLS that supports over 120 currencies. Their inclusion adds to the platform's robust community, which now features eight of the top 10 global banks.

CLSNet, which centralises and standardises post-trade processes across various trade types, including same-day trades and NDFs, offers participants the means to reduce risk and enhance operational efficiency. With the FX market's settlement risk, particularly in emerging market currencies, being a concern, CLSNet's automated post-trade services are increasingly sought after for effective risk mitigation.

The platform has witnessed unprecedented growth, with the average daily notional value of net calculations consistently surpassing USD 115 billion over the past year, culminating in a record daily notional of USD 445 billion netted on December 20, 2023.

Lisa Danino-Lewis, Chief Growth Officer at CLS, welcomed BNY Mellon and ING to CLSNet: “We are delighted that BNY Mellon and ING are joining CLSNet’s growing community of users and will benefit from the risk mitigation, operational efficiencies, and liquidity advantages that the service delivers. CLSNet is directly accessible to a diverse group of market participants, extending its benefits across the FX industry.”

Jason Vitale, Head of Global Markets Trading at BNY Mellon, emphasised the benefits of joining CLSNet: “By joining CLSNet, this will enable us to provide clients with improvements in intraday liquidity and execution efficiency.”

Robbert Zee, FM Operations Lead at ING, highlighted the impact on post-trade processes: “CLSNet provides the functionality to strengthen and standardize the post-trade processes across the global currency spectrum. As the largest Dutch bank with significant global operations, our participation in the service will be integral to our ability to improve operational efficiency and reduce risk for the currencies that are not currently eligible for CLSSettlement.”

CLSNet also aligns with the FX Global Code principles, ensuring the integrity of matched trade instructions up to the cut-off times for each currency. This automation through a centralized platform delivers increased operational efficiency and risk mitigation for currencies outside the scope of CLSSettlement.