CLS Group

CLS Group is a specialized financial market infrastructure group whose main entity is the New York-based CLS Bank, founded in July 1997, with CLS Bank beginning operations on September 9, 2002. It operates a global central multicurrency cash settlement system for foreign exchange transactions, enabling firms to settle trades through simultaneous payment-versus-payment settlement across multiple currencies and mitigating settlement risk. Its holding company, CLS Group Holdings AG, is based in Lucerne, Switzerland, while its banking operations, CLS Bank International, are based in New York City; by March 2017 it was settling just over half of global foreign exchange transactions, and the Financial Stability Oversight Council designated it a systemically important financial market utility in 2012.