CLS UK Intermediate Holdings Ltd. said last week that its U.S. banking unit, CLS Bank International of New York, set a volume record on Dec. 20, settling 529,318 payment instructions worth $6.62 trillion, using continuous linked settlement of foreign exchange.
It was the first time the value of payment instructions settled exceeded $6 trillion in one day, CLS Bank said. The previous record was 502,384 payment instructions worth $5.47 trillion.
CLS Bank said it settled an average of 264,361 foreign exchange payment instructions a day in November, worth more than $2.8 trillion.
CLS Bank went live in September 2002. It now links to the real-time gross settlement systems operated by central banks in 15 currencies and is used by 57 member banks and 855 third parties. including banks, brokers, funds, and corporations.
In continuous linked settlement, each participating settlement member has to begin and end each business day in balance in each of the traded currencies, while settling both ends of each transaction through the day, to eliminate settlement risk.
