CLS Group

CLS (originally Continuous Linked Settlement) is a specialist US financial institution that provides settlement services to its members in the foreign exchange market (FX). Although the forex market is decentralised and has no central exchange or clearing facility, firms that chose to use CLS to settle their FX transactions can mitigate the settlement risk associated with their trades.

CLS does this through the operation of a payment versus payment (PvP) settlement service which mitigates settlement risk for the FX transactions of its settlement members and their customers (third parties).

The service started operating in 2002 as an Edge Act Corporation, a limited purpose bank regulated by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Since it began operations in 2002, CLS has rapidly become the market-standard for foreign exchange settlement. As a result, the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) officially designated CLS a Systemically Important Financial Market Utility in July 2012.