FirstRand Bank gives ABN Amro CLS mandate

ABN Amro has been awarded a mandate by FirstRand Bank for third-party continuous-linked settlement (CLS) services in South Africa.

The banks have also entered a partnership agreement for the provision of private-labelled fourth-party CLS services across Africa, and ABN Amro said the agreement will mean that FirstRand is one of the first banks on the continent to go live with third-party CLS services.

“With the addition of the Rand to the growing list of CLS currencies, there is now an even greater imperative for South African organisations to adopt this settlement system,” said Sam Zavatti, senior vice-president for financial institutions and the public sector at ABN Amro.

CLS is a global system to reduce foreign exchange transaction risk and is designed to settle trades on a net-funded basis over a period of time when country-specific real-time global settlement systems overlap.