Citi Business News has gathered that the Central Securities Depository (CSD) has successfully migrated the securities accounts from the old depositories onto a new platform.
This means that the Ghana Stock Exchange Security Depository (GSD) and Central Securities Depository (CSD) have all securities accounts merged and both debt and equity holdings will now be maintained in a single account.
The new system, Citi Business News understands has been interfaced with the Automated Trading System (ATS) of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) which allows all cash settlements for trades to be done on the ATS to be settled by the CSD through accounts of banks held at the Bank of Ghana.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Central Securities Depository Ghana Limited, Mr. Stephen Tetteh explained to Citi Business News that formerly the two depositories included those dealing with equity deal with one depository that was linked with the Ghana Stock Exchange training system and those who have debt instrument.
“Treasury bills and bonds also deal with the previous Bank of Ghana depository. So the project we did was to install one platform so that we migrate all accounts from the two depositories into the single platform. So from today, if you have shares or treasury bills or bonds, you maintain all in a single account”, he added.
He stated that because the CSD is linked with the Ghana Stock Exchange Training system, any transactions that take place on the exchange will pass through the single depository.
“You don’t need to deal with two depositories. Previously the brokers and banks they have to register with the two depositories and deal on two separate lines. But now we have cut off that and then in addition to that the new platform installed is a more modern one with a lot of functionalities’’, he said.
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By: Norvan Acquah-Hayford/citibusinessnews/Ghana