Oslo Børs VPS / Oslo Clearing successfully launched a central counterparty (CCP) for clearing of trades in five selected shares listed on Oslo Børs on Friday. This represents a “soft launch” of a CCP for equities prior to the launch of CCP clearing for all equities, equity certificates and ETFs traded on Oslo Børs and Oslo Axess. This is planned to take place on 18 June.

Verdipapirsentralen ASA (VPS) has been involved since spring 2008 with the development of a new mutual funds system, with the objective of renewing the services it offers for fund management companies and their distributors. The Board of Directors of VPS has now decided to repudiate the contractual relationship with the supplier Capgemini and halt this project.

The Oslo Børs VPS group is committed to competitive pricing for its customers throughout the entire securities value chain. When central counterparty (CCP) clearing for equities trading is introduced in the Norwegian market next year, broking firms will see a significant drop in their clearing and settlement costs thanks to new competitive pricing model from Oslo Clearing and lower fees from VPS.

VPS is to reduce the fee charged for settlement of exchange trades in the Norwegian market by approximately 22% with effect from 1 November. The fee for such transactions will be reduced from NOK 3.20 to NOK 2.50.

The Board of Directors of Verdipapirsentralen (VPS) has appointed Ole-Wilhelm Meyer (53) as the new Chief Executive Officer. Ole-Wilhelm Meyer is currently the CEO of SpareBank 1 Livsforsikring AS. He will take up his appointment on 14 September 2009.