Clearstream's Central Facility for Funds (CFF), the innovative solution launched last year to streamline the post trade processes in the cross border investment funds industry has received the Technology Award for "clearing and settlement" granted by the UK based magazine, The Banker

Deutsche Börse will launch a new version of its fully electronic trading system Xetra at the end of November. This 9.1 release will enable fully electronic Europe-wide fund trading as of December 2008. More than 260 banks and brokerage firms – around 100 of which are from European countries other than Germany – will have direct access to more than 3,300 actively managed mutual funds.

Bew index weights now applies for companies in equity indices of Deutsche Börse. Deutsche Börse released the preliminary weighting figures on Wednesday. An update of the preliminary weighting will be published on Friday. The preliminary data can be downloaded from the Deutsche Börse website.

Deutsche Börse AG plans to resume its share buyback program on 1 July 2008. The company will use the current authorization through the AGM on 21 May 2008 to repurchase up to 10 percent of its share capital amounting to nominal €195 million while taking into account shares owned by the company. Currently, the company holds 3,097,468 own shares in treasury.

With the start of trading on 16 June, the Bulgarian Stock Exchange has been using Xetra – the fully electronic trading system of Deutsche Börse Group. The contract governing the technical market control of the stock exchange in Sofia has an initial term of five years. Deutsche Börse will be responsible for organizing trading in approximately 500 securities listed on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange.

Collateral managed via Clearstream’s Global Securities Financing (GSF) services have broken the € 400 billion mark for the first time in May illustrating the growing importance of secured financing and the continued flight of collateral towards central liquidity pools.

Single stock futures (SSF) have continued to enjoy strong growth in 2008 at Eurex. In the first five months, 196 percent more SSFs have been traded than in the same period last year. Up to the end of May 2008, a total of 95 million contracts changed hands in this segment (Jan to May 2007: 32 million).

As of Thursday, 12 June 2008, 66 new exchange-traded commodities (ETCs), will be tradable on Xetra. Offering a total of 114 exchange-traded commodities, Xetra is now the largest trading venue for ETCs in the euro zone.

Euroclear Bank and Clearstream Banking Luxembourg jointly announce a further round of improvements to the automated daytime ‘Bridge’ between the two International Central Securities Depositories (ICSDs). The upgrade follows the successful completion of daytime Bridge improvements introduced in March 2007.

Deutsche Börse and Porsche Automobil SE today agreed to end their long-pending legal dispute on the publication of quarterly reports amicably. The two parties declared the lawsuit on the quarterly reporting requirements in the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (FWB), which had been pending at the Federal Administrative Court, as settled.

In May 2008, the value of assets under custody on behalf of customers rose to € 10.8 trillion, a 2 percent rise from May 2007 (€ 10.6 trillion). Securities held under custody in Clearstream’s international business experienced a rise of 6 percent from €4.7 to € 5.0 trillion and domestic German securities held under custody decreased by 2 percent from € 5.9 trillion to € 5.8 trillion.

Deutsche Börse AG executed today the successful issuance of EUR 550 million of hybrid capital, the first European public hybrid benchmark transaction in 2008. The funding is part of the long term re-financing of the International Securities Exchange (ISE) acquisition.