The Czech Ministry of Finance and Central Securities Depository Prague have signed an agreement for the transfer of the files and records of dematerialised and locked-up securities from the Prague Securities Centre. “The intensive negotiations and several years of preparations have come to a successful end, as the transfer of the files was also approved by the Czech Government and the agreement was subsequently signed,” says Klára Hájková, deputy Minister of Finance.“ Both Parties thus took a significant step towards the commencement of activities of the Central Depository.
The Central Depository is a joint-stock company which maintains the central securities register in the Czech Republic, assigns international identification numbers (ISIN) to securities and operates the settlement system. The consolidation of the registration of investment instruments and settlement of trades will enable the operation of a multi-stage register common in other European countries and will contribute to the standardization of the Czech capital market.
The Central Depository will become fully functional once the Exchange members and other banks and securities traders to participate in the Central Depository finalize the necessary technical preparations. As this will take several months, the Central Depository is planned to commence full operation in mid 2010.
“The signing of the agreement with the Ministry of Finance is an important milestone within the entire project. I am convinced that once the project has been fully implemented, we will have a more transparent market. We look forward to being able to find space for gradual cost reductions in the process of registration and settlement, as well as to increasing the effectiveness of the entire process, which will open up new possibilities for us to extend our product offer in this area,“ says Helena Čacká, Director of Central Securities Depository Prague