Eurex Clearing will provide central counterparty services to Quadriserv's new securities lending platform, AQS.

The Quadriserv-Eurex Clearing partnership will initially create services for trading, clearing and settlement in UK, German and Swiss equities. Eurex Clearing, as central clearing provider, will mitigate counterparty risk and facilitate settlement processing for all clearing members.

AQS will provide fully-automated trading and middle office functionality to facilitate centralized, anonymous borrowing and lending activity.

'The steady progress towards a centralized, structured marketplace for securities lending continues unabated, and we firmly believe that the AQS securities lending platform has become an important part of this evolving landscape,' says Quadriserv chief executive Thomas J. Perna.

'We are pleased to complement our US capabilities with the addition of our Eurex partnership, which greatly expands the reach and distribution of our AQS platform to European markets.'

Thomas Book, the member of the Eurex executive board responsible for clearing, says: 'We are very pleased to co-operate with Quadriserv to further expand our industry-leading clearing services. The combination of the AQS platform and our securities lending offering highlights Eurex Clearing's leading role in creating a European market standard.'

The firms say their relationship advances important organisational objectives of both. The arrangement complements and expands Quadriserv's clearing and settlement relationship with the Options Clearing Corporation for US equities, which will commence operations in early 2009.

Eurex Clearing has announced its plans to launch a securities lending clearing service with Clearstream, which is also part of the Deutsche Börse group, in the second quarter of hits year.