Verdipapirsentralen ASA (VPS) has entered into an agreement with the software company Percival CSD Partners AS for the replacement of its core systems for securities registration and settlement.
Percival is a specialist in software for central securities depositories.
As part of the modernisation of its IT platform, VPS will develop new end-user solutions for investors and issuers and will also implement new market standards for corporate actions and settlement. This investment in new infrastructure is being made in order to ensure VPS’s future competitiveness and to comply with new EU regulations.
“Linking investors and issuers closer together will be essential to ensuring VPS continues to be an attractive provider of services to investors and issuers. This also corresponds with the trend we see in the European market in general. New European regulation is bringing increasing competition. This new project will mean we will be well-positioned to meet this competition”, comments John-Arne Haugerud, CEO of VPS.
In addition to strengthening VPS’s own competitiveness, the new solution will enable VPS to support the strategy for strong sectors followed by Oslo Børs VPS and the market, in part by meeting the expected increasing demand from international customers for greater currency functionality.
The modernised system will also be adapted for connection to T2S, the European Central Bank’s initiative to foster integration and greater efficiency in securities settlement in Europe.
The project will start during the course of the fourth quarter of 2014, and is expected to last until the second quarter of 2017. It will involve spending in the region of NOK 120 million on external suppliers.
Of this, just below NOK 20 million will be recognised as direct costs, with the remainder recognised as capitalised expenditure. VPS expects the project to bring yearly cost savings in the region of NOK 20 million (with full year effect starting in 2018).