The introduction of a shorter ex-interest period contributes to international investors getting a better understanding of the Norwegian bond market. It is believed that international investors will see that a shorter ex-interest period will provide less risk and greater predictability for investments in the Norwegian bond market. VPS has now tailored for flexibility for restructurings that previously was quite limited during the ex-interest period.
As a result of the shorter ex-interest period, we are now able to send the MT 566 confirmations to the account operators up to four hours earlier than what we used to do.
For several years there has been an effort to standardize and harmonize the securities markets in Europe. EU has via the Corporate Actions Joint Working Group (CAJWG) issued its recommendations and guidelines on how to achieve such standardization and harmonization.
As a result of these efforts, VPS decided to reduce the ex-interest period for bonds from 14 calendar days to 1 business day with effect from 18 March 2015.