The NZCSD Flyer
No 95 - April 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 whom further enquiries should be directed. However, please also feel free to contact Peter Katz (00 644) 471 3711, email katzp@rbnz.govt.nz, on any Austraclear issue or Barry Norton (00 644) 471 3682, email nortonb@rbnz.govt.nz on Registry business.
Austraclear User Group Meeting - 14 May 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 14 May 2004. These meetings will be held on level 3, BNZ Tower, 125 Queen Street, Auckland. The User Group meeting will start at 1.30pm and end around 3.00pm. A copy of the agenda is attached. Users of the Austraclear system and members of the NZFMOA are invited to drinks at the same venue from 5.30pm to 7.00pm.
We look forward to seeing those of you who can attend the meeting and/or the evening drinks. If there are any particular issues you would like to see added to the agenda please contact Peter Katz on (04) 471 3711 or email katzp@rbnz.govt.nz.
Austraclear Rules
On 19 April 2004 the revised Austraclear Rules and Austraclear Operating Guidelines come into effect.
The new Rules and Operating Guidelines are available from our website http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/payment/austraclear/index.html. Also, a summary of the changes sent to Treasury Operations Managers is available on our website.
Technology Refresh Project Update1
On 19 April 2004 the members will logon to the new UNIX systems and refreshed software. Instructions for this have been sent to Treasury Operation Managers. In particular members are asked to undertake the actions in the table below:
|
Date |
Member Action |
|
Wednesday 14th - Friday 16th April |
Members must: |
|
Monday 19th April |
Members log on to the Unix production system. |
I also urge members to re-read the Technology Upgrade Conversion Differences sent to members on 5 January 2004, also available on our website http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/payment/austraclear/index.html.
Reserve Bank FINEWISS Registry Service
The Bank announced it shall exit the business of providing registry and paying agent services to the vast majority of issuers - the only exception being the intention to provide a very restricted registry service to issuers of discount securities such as RCD's issued directly through the Austraclear system, using the FINEWISS function.
From 1 May securities issued through the FINEWISS Register can only be held in NZCSD i.e. they can not be uplifted and sold to a third party who is not a member of Austraclear2.
System software changes are being developed that will prevent the uplift of these securities from the system. For your information, issuers of RCD's who plan to use the FINEWISS Registry Service from 1 May are:
AMP Bank Limited
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited
Carter Holt Harvey Limited
GMAC Asia Pacific Treasury Centre
Rabo Australia Limited
Wellington International Airport Limited
ASB Bank
Kiwibank Limited
Bank of New Zealand
Westpac Banking Corporation
ABN AMRO Bank N.V. New Zealand Branch
Contact Energy Limited
Please ensure that your staff (traders and settlements staff) are aware of this list and understand that RCD's issued by these issuers post 1 May can not be uplifted.
This list will be kept up to date on our website http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/payment/austraclear/index.html.
NZCSD - Acceptable securities (Reminder)
Members and issuers are reminded that effective 1 April 2004 all new issue fixed interest securities accepted by NZCSD will require the issuer to have appointed a paying agent who is a member of Austraclear and who undertakes to pay the beneficial holders in NZCSD directly using the FIISCONF function. I.e. acceptance of any new issue fixed interest security by NZCSD will require the issuer or their agent as a member of Austraclear to pay beneficial holders directly in irrevocable funds.
Members should therefore ensure that any securities purchased for lodgement into Austraclear post 1 April 2004 are acceptable by NZCSD. Members can check if a security has been accepted by the depository by using FISERIESQ or by ringing our helpdesk (04) 471 3897. If you have further queries relating to this issue please contact Peter Katz (04) 471 3711 or Adrienne Barlow (04) 471 3629.
Reminder - Representative Voting and Attending Meetings
A proxy form must be completed by yourselves and returned to the appropriate agent i.e. registry, company etc. 48 hours prior to the meeting.
If you wish to send a representative to the meeting you must contact the Austraclear Team (614 4 4713897 prior to the voting cut-off which is 48hrs prior to meeting). We will then contact the company for approval for your representative to participate in the meeting on behalf of a beneficial owner of securities held by NZCSD (registered holder).
Once approval has been given we will give the representative a letter of confirmation to present at the meeting. If this process isn't adhered to your representative's vote is likely to be refused.
Austraclear/ESAS System Availability
The figure below shows the Austraclear/ESAS System outages over the last twelve months.
For the last 3 months (December 03 to February 04) we had no Austraclear system outages that affected Austraclear users.
Accordingly the Austraclear system was available for 100% of normal business hours over the last 3 months.3
CLS Settlement
The Reserve Bank and industry are working to introduce CLS settlement effective September 2004 (trialing with low transaction volumes and values ). Full go live date is planned for November 2004. In order to meet this objective we plan to complete the Technology Refresh Project by the end of April 2004. CLS Bank then begin their testing in June 2004 which will then be followed by the NZ industry testing of CLS planned for September 2004. A CLS Usergroup comprising of those Banks participating in CLS operates to consider operational and liquidity issues.
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 Jo Woodman-Smith (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 |
|
WJMW40 |
Waddell Johnston McCarthy and Co Ltd |
Full |
|
UBSA45 |
UBS Australia Ltd o/a UBS Nominees Ltd |
Branch |
|
W23840 |
Home Loan Nominees Ltd - Westpac Home Loan Trsut |
Nominated Trust |
|
W09240 |
Guardian Nominees Ltd - Westpac NZ Bonds 2002 Wholesale Trust |
Nominated Trust |
|
W09040 |
Guardian Nominees Ltd - Westpac NZ Shares 2002 Wholesale Trust |
Nominated Trust |
|
CONL40 |
Contact Energy Limited |
ASSC |
|
WIAP40 |
Wellington International Airport Ltd |
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)
Austraclear New Zealand members
Independent auditor's report to the System Operator of Austraclear New Zealand for quarter ending 30 September 2003 15 October 2003 (PDF 324KB)
Financial Services Group Customer Service Contacts 25 February 2003
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
Austraclear/ESAS Hours of Operation 26 March 2003
Austraclear/ESAS Flexible Hours of Operation User Acceptance Testing Test Strategy August 2003
Austraclear/ESAS Technology Refresh Project Overview of the RBNZ's UAT Test Plan 23 October 2003 also available as PDF (223KB)
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)
Process to Cutover to the New Austraclear/ESAS Software and Systems 2 April 2004 (PDF 158KB)
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.
Austraclear Statistics
1 Under the "Technology Refresh' project the system operating software (Oracle form as and oracle database), will be migrated to newer releases that ensures the application will be supported to at least late 2006 and will provide a sound platform for future development if need be. Also the Austraclear and ESAS application will be migrated from VMS to a UNIX environment.
2 Details of this service, including Agreements and costs are posted on the Reserve Bank's Website http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/payment/austraclear/index.html.
3 Availability based on 10 hours per business day. ESAS/SWIFT outages do not prevent access to and processing in the Austraclear system although settlement may be slowed when ESAS/SWIFT has an outage.
