Celebrating Our Past, Modernizing Our Future
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1970
The Canadian Depository for Securities Limited (CDS Ltd.) was incorporated on June 9, 1970 in response to rising back office costs and increased volumes in the capital markets resulting from a vibrant Canadian economy. It was formed to leverage new technologies and automation to create a centralized depository service and an electronic clearing and settlement system that could not only handle higher volumes, but meet future needs.
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1976
In 1976, CDS began clearing trades executed on the Montreal Exchange and by the following year, the Toronto Exchange was on board. In 1979, CDS became a participant of The Depository Trust Company (DTC) in New York, a first step toward meeting the growing need for access to the U.S. market. DTC became a direct CDS participant in 1998, making cross-border clearing and settlement a reality.
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1981
In 1981, the first equity securities were deposited in the book-based system. Government of Canada bonds were added to the system in the late 1980s, followed by the implementation of the Debt Clearing System for bonds and money market instruments in the early 1990s.
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2003
With the launch of CDSX® in 2003 – one of the most advanced clearing and settlement systems in the world – securities processing at CDS became simpler, faster and more effective. The completion of the securities settlement risk model in 2004 added highly effective mechanisms for managing operational, liquidity and counterparty risk exposures to CDS's operating environment.
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2012
In 2012, CDS became part of the TMX Group, creating a unified securities infrastructure that encompasses the entire lifecycle of trading, trade execution and trade settlement. CDS is an integral component of TMX Group, Canada’s biggest capital formation ecosystem, allowing us to collaborate, innovate and create additional value for the benefit of all market participants.
Highlights From The Last Decade
New web-based services launched:
Electronic Alerts Service (EAS)
Corporate Action Liability Management Service (CALMS), TRAX
Thomas Murray affirms CDS’s overall ‘AA’ rating for fourth consecutive year
CDS acquired by the Maple group and becomes part of TMX Group, creating a unified securities infrastructure encompassing trading, trade execution and trade settlement.
Implemented issuer service fees, to be phased in over 2017 and 2018.
H.O. Moves to 100 Adelaide.
Constantly Innovating
CDS reduced the number of physical certificates in CDS vault down to less than 1%, by converting to non certificated inventory (NCI) and received approval from regulators to eliminate the option for issuers to submit a new security format after Aug. 31st, 2017. This initiative began in 2016 as a part of the DBT - Doing Better Together process and is ongoing for remaining certs in Toronto and Montreal Office.
Innovation Doesn’t Stop Here
Equally important to reflecting on and celebrating our past, this milestone anniversary has created an opportunity for CDS to lay the foundation for the future. It drives us to continue to deliver While the past five decades allowed us to develop and grow an exhaustive body of knowledge and expertise, our software, systems and internal infrastructure have aged, becoming expensive and resource-intensive to maintain.
As a result, we have launched the Post-Trade Modernization (PTM) project, which will move CDS to a new scalable, reliable and a more flexible technology platform.
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