The NZCSD Flyer

No 97 - October 2004

Introduction

The NZCSD Flyer provides our customers with a series of brief notes about current matters of interest to both Registry customers and Austraclear Members.

Each item usually includes a reference to the person or section to who further enquiries should be directed. However, please also feel free to contact Adrienne Barlow (0064 4) 471 3629, email barlowa@rbnz.govt.nz, on any Austraclear/ESAS.

The new Payments and Settlement Services Section - PASS

As advised in the June Flyer the Austraclear business and ESAS/Settlement team have been amalgamated.

Adrienne Barlow has been appointed Manager of Payment and Settlement Services (PaSS), Debbie Hughes as Payment and Settlement Systems Adviser and Rebecca Murphy as Operations Administrator. The Team Leaders for each of the teams within PaSS are -

RTGS Administration - Donna McDiarmid
Settlements - Juanita Pender
Austraclear Operations - Lincoln Carlyle

Next Austraclear User Group Meeting - 12 November 2004

The next Austraclear User Group meeting is to be held in conjunction with the New Zealand Financial Markets Operations Association's [FMOA] meeting on Friday 12 November 2004.

This meeting will be held in Wellington. The User Group meeting will start around 1.30pm and end around 3.00pm. A copy of the agenda and acceptance form is attached. Please distribute to your staff who you expect to attend.

Business Continuity Test - 20 August 2004

On 20 August 2004 we conducted our regular BCP test from IBM's (previously Logical) premises in Willis Street. This test was in conjunction with the 6 monthly RTGS DR test.

Once again these tests proved to be invaluable, proving that we can re-establish operations within 2 hours and conduct our daily business with minimal disruption. The 6 monthly RTGS DR test is run on our Auckland DR system; this also confirmed we can have Auckland up and running in a timely manner.

Late AIL claims for Non Residents

From time to time we have a number of requests for late claims on behalf of non residents whose securities are held in Austraclear. These claims are very time consuming therefore we would like to encourage members to be timely in advising us of there offshore investors. After consultation with the registry a handling fee will be charged as follows -

(i) Same month i.e. prior to 20th month following coupon/int payment $100.00.
(ii) Same tax year i.e. prior to 31 March (effectively 20 April) $125.00.
(iii) Outside these dates $600.00.

This fee will be charged regardless of the outcome of the claim; the related work is the same.

Austraclear/ESAS System Availability

CLS Settlement

The NZD is due to be admitted as a currency for settlement by CLS Bank later this year. CLS allows simultaneous settlement of both legs of FX transactions. Testing and trialling by Austraclear members who are also ESAS Accountholders is progressing well.

Software changes were migrated to production on 27 September 2004 to accommodate the requirements for CLS Settlement. The changes are:

(i) Austraclear members who are not ESAS accountholders can access the Austraclear system between 5.00pm (after cash cut off ) and 8.30am the next business day to:
· make enquiries
· print reports
· input future dated trades (excluding equities)
· transfer securities without cash consideration (excluding equities)

(ii) ESAS members to:
Settle same-day transactions (excluding equities) post final cash cut off at 5.00pm rather than wait until 7.00pm.

In general the following hours of operation changes that occurred are:

· The Cash Cut Off wait time has been shortened by 15 minutes from 5.15 to 5.00pm (as noted in the 16 September 2004 Notice).
· Members will no longer be shut out of the system at 7pm.
· Members will no longer be able to input future dated equity transactions between 5.00pm and 7.00pm

FATF Compliance

Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an independent inter-governmental body, linked to the OECD, whose purpose is the development and promotion of internationally accepted standards policies to combat money laundering to prevent the exploitation of financial institutions by terrorists.
New Zealand is a member of the FATF and is committed to implementing its recommendations.

Implications for Austraclear

Cross Border fund transfers must be accompanied by accurate meaningful originator information - account number, name and contact address.

Domestic fund transfers may be absolved from providing full originator information in the funds transfer transaction if the transaction can be traced back to a unique transaction identifier number from which the base transaction details can be readily found.

System changes required to comply with FATF will be tested very shortly and be migrated to Production this year. These changes are to the CASHP instruction free format fields, increasing the lines from 2 to 3 with 60 characters each.

Early next year these lines will be added to the Offline Archive system.

Network Upgrade

As advised at the May User Group meeting the Austraclear/ESAS Network core routers were due to be upgraded. During September our technical people upgraded the core routers at the Reserve Bank with customer rollouts throughout October.

REGISTRY Information

Members are reminded that securities issued and held on the FINEWISS register can not be uplifted from Austraclear. (The system will send an error message if a member attempts to uplift a FINEWISS registered security).

The issuers and their Austraclear codes are:

ABN AMRO Bank N.V. New Zealand Branch (ABNF)
ANZ National Bank Limited (ANBF)
ASB Bank Ltd (ASBF)
Bank of New Zealand (BNZF)
Carter Holt Harvey Limited (CAHF)
Citibank (CBNF)
Contact Energy Limited (CONL)
Deutsche Bank (DEUF)
GMAC Asia Pacific Treasury Centre (GMAF)
Kiwibank Limited (KBAF)
Lion Nathan Limited (LFNF)
Rabo Australia Limited (RANF)
SABRE New Zealand (SABF)
TCNZ Finance (TCFF)
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HKBF)
Wellington International Airport Limited (WIAP)
Westpac Banking Corporation (WPAF)

Lodging of Securities into Austraclear

Members should check with our Help Desk (0064 4) 4713918 if a security that isn't already in Austraclear is acceptable for lodgement into the system.

We had a policy change earlier this year and as a result from 1 April 2004 all new issues of fixed interest securities accepted by NZCSD require the issuer to have appointed a paying agent who is a member of Austraclear to pay the beneficial holders in NZCSD directly using the FIISCONF function. Acceptance of any new issue of fixed interest security by NZCSD will require the issuer or their agent to be a member of Austraclear to pay beneficial holders directly in irrevocable funds.

Processing of Transfers

Recently we have been required to return a number of transfers to members to be correctly completed. Incomplete transfers could result in failed trades. To ensure this doesn't happen here are some tips for completing the transfer form -

LODGES
On-market transfer forms should be signed by the seller (transferor) with the appropriate agents stamps in the box provided. All details of the security to be transferred i.e. maturity date, coupon, amount, name of issuer, seller CSN, and the NZCSD stamp in the buyer's portion. (If you don't have a stamp please contact our help desk).

Off-market transfer forms must be signed by the seller and witnessed and signed by the buyer with all the details of security etc.

UPLIFTS
All the details of the security to be transferred, maturity date, coupon, amount, name of issuer, NZCSD stamp in the seller portion (do not sign as the seller). The buyer's details must be complete with their CSN, with the appropriate agents stamps in the box provided.

Austraclear Housekeeping

How up to date are your Austraclear contacts.

1. Have we your latest signatory list?
2. Are the contact details in Austraclear correct (phone/fax numbers, names etc)

If the answer is no please contact Rebecca Murphy 64 4 4713897murphyr@rbnz.govt.nz

Austraclear New Zealand Member List

The list of `Austraclear System Members and Mnemonics' has been updated and posted on our website
http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/payment/austraclear/0107384.html. If you are unable to access our website please fax Jaimee Taylor (04-471 3834) with a request to have a hard copy mailed to you quarterly.

Changes in Membership

New members/Members branches

Welcome to the new Austraclear members.

Mnemonic	Name	Membership
ETOS90	ETOS Limited	Assc
FNZS44	First NZ Capital Securities	Branch
SELF90	The Selwyn Foundation	Assc
STNZ90	Super Trust of NZ	Assc

Index of Austraclear and NZCSD Information and Documents available on the Internet

Listed below are the Austraclear and NZCSD documents which are available for download from our internet page
http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/payment/Austraclear/index.html

Overview of Austraclear (also available in PDF 120KB)
Submission on NZX Central Clearing House (CCH) proposal 30 August 2004
Austraclear New Zealand members
Independent auditor's report to the System Operator of Austraclear New Zealand for quarter ending 30 June 2004 22 July 2004 (PDF 59KB)
Financial Services Group Customer Service Contacts 22 October 2004
Austraclear Customer Survey March 2002
Austraclear : Host-To-Host Lite (HTH*Lite) guide and application pack February 2002 (PDF 271KB)
Austraclear New Zealand System Rules Effective date 19 April 2004 (PDF 126KB)
Austraclear New Zealand system rules 9 October 2000 (PDF 115KB)
Austraclear New Zealand Operating Guidelines 12 May 2003 (PDF 160KB)
Austraclear New Zealand Operating Guidelines Effective 19 April 2004 (PDF 385KB)
Austraclear New Zealand system membership application pack (PDF 191KB)
Austraclear functions: quick reference guide - Screen Refresh and Toggle
Austraclear New Zealand charges Effective from 20 January 2004
Network Access Fee Schedule
Austraclear System: Hours of Availability Post CLS 6 December 2002
Austraclear Usergroup Hours of Operation 7 February 2003
Minutes of the Austraclear User Group Hours of Operation Sub-Committee 23 January 2003

Quick Reference Guide - Summary of Form 3 (VMS) and Form 6 (Unix) differences for users of the Austraclear/ESAS systems 5 January 2004 (PDF 19KB)
Technology upgrade conversion differences prepared for Austraclear and ESAS users 5 January 2004 (PDF 141KB)
FINEWISS Registry Agreement October 2003 (PDF 139KB)

Association of Global Custodians Questionnaire (2003-2004) (PDF 696KB)

The NZCSD Flyer provides our customers with a series of brief notes about current matters of interest to both Registry customers and Austraclear members.