Following a less-than-two-year on-boarding procedure, CLS settlement in Hungarian Forint started on Monday, 16 November 2015. The Hungarian Forint is the eighteenth settlement currency in the CLS system and the first among the Central and Eastern European currencies to join the CLS settlement system.
Following the successful launching of the HUF CLS settlement this Monday, a press conference was held by the Central Bank of Hungary on Wednesday, 18 November 2015, with the participation of representatives of the Central Bank, the CLS Group and also local banks. In the course of this event CLS confirmed the number of so-called “Day 1 Participants”, i.e. by 16 November 2015, eleven settlement members started to channel their FX settlements to the CLS system. CLS expects further settlement members to join the HUF settlement in the forthcoming months.
Being a major CLS Nostro Agent service provider in HUF, UniCredit Bank Hungary was invited to make two presentations during the conference: Mr. Attila Csáky, Managing Director and Head of Markets summarised the milestones of UniCredit’s relationship with the CLS system and also of the CLS Nostro Agent service project of UniCredit Bank Hungary, while Mr. Péter Móger, Managing Director and Head of Global Transaction Banking gave a brief overview of the Global Transaction Banking area and the related regular Nostro Agent services of the bank.
Further information about CLS in Hungary will be available in the forthcoming edition of our Newsletter in December.
Impact on investors: The introduction of the Hungarian Forint as a CLS settlement currency aims at mitigating settlement risks involved in the foreign exchange market, thereby reinforcing the stability of the financial system.