The President and CEO’s Message

The VPS Group expanded in the course of 2006. The establishment of VPS Clearing was an important milestone in strengthening interplay and interaction in the Norwegian securities chain. The VPS Group took over responsibility for the clearing of financial instruments on 1 September 2006 and has closely integrated this function into its organisation. The task of further developing clearing services and coordinating them with VPS’s other services is well under way. A major undertaking for VPS Clearing has been to switch technology and systems to OMX Secur, a transition which was successfully achieved.

The securities business has traditionally developed and operated the bulk of its systems itself, with a sizeable element of proprietary systems and local solutions. VPS has instigated greater standardisation, and has switched to a technology that makes hooking up with other systems a lot simpler. This approach creates new potentials in terms of our ability to collaborate with other institutions on develop-ment and operation, and could lower costs and expedite development.

We also recognise that strengthening interplay and interaction in the Norwegian securities chain is needed in order to assure a competitive infrastructure for the market place, clearing and settlement. More options will be available to our customers in the future. They will be able to choose between services offered at local level and solutions offered by major European and global entities. Today’s solutions in the Norwegian market are efficient and effective, and they need to be further developed by market places, VPS and customers working together closely. By this means we can play our part in ensuring that the Norwegian market remains an attractive place to invest, and in further developing Norway’s financial industry.

I would like to commend our customers who invariably step up when we need to move forward, whether in discussing fundamentals of market practice or details of a product specification. Norway has a sound tradition of devising shared solutions based on collaboration between competitors. This has strengthened the local market, and it is important to build further on the enthusiasm and competence which has been established. This will ensure that our infrastructure can continue to serve as a model for others, and as a platform for the development of fruitful work sharing between pivotal European services and local state-of-the-art solutions.

Jan Hellstrøm
President and CEO