China has been recognized as the fifth largest investor for Belgian company Euroclear, one of the world's largest central securities depositaries. It was also revealed that the country has been a stakeholder in the company for four successive years, but has only been recently announced as such after the company changed its shareholding structure.
A unit of China's central bank called State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) reportedly owns 4.26 per cent stake in Euroclear. According to the Belgian company's official website, Euroclear is a crucial entity in the daily operation of financial markets. It was revealed that it held collateral and settling trades of its investors. Moreover, it was reported that it held more than 28 trillion Euros of assets.
Additionally, the SAFE stake was revealed to be owned by Kuri Atyak Investments Limited. The company is currently registered in the British Virgin Islands and its CEO Atyak currently sits as one of the board members of the holding company. The said company was also held by the Chinese company Xiaomei Fan.
The Euroclear website indicated that Atyak is a graduate of the Beijing Institute of Technology and is an authorized representative of the company. However, there was no mention that she is associated with SAFE.
Euroclear was also reported to operate globally. However, only 14 percent of its clients are based in Asia where it currently competed against Clearstream. Apart from China, Euroclear's four biggest shareholders are French securities manager Sicovam, Intercontinental Exchange, JPMorgan, and the London Stock Exchange.
According to the official website of Euroclear, the company is a global provider of financial market infrastructure (FMI) services. It aids its clients in settling domestic and cross-border securities transactions and protects investments. The website also alleged that Euroclear helps manage risks and exposures arising from financial transactions.
Furthermore, it was revealed that the assets the company holds are valued at 30 trillion euros. Moreover, the total value of security transactions that the group settles amounts to over 791 trillion euros per year.
In other news, Xinhua reported that the China's Central Bank has been imposing market-based reforms to boost the country's economic growth. The report claimed that the results thereto would be a decline in real interest rate levels and cut social financing costs.
Moreover, China's central bank also assured that it would expand atwo-way financial opening and would switch a new pricing benchmark when it comes to its outstanding loans. The said changes would keep the Chinese yuan's exchange rate stable and keep it balanced in the coming year.
