State Street Global Markets has purchased SSISearch, the operator of a database of standard cross-border settlement instructions which it has hosted on its Global Link network for a couple of years.

The purchase, for an undisclosed sum, means State Street stands behind The Settlement Directory, a compendium of international payment processing and settlement instructions developed with assistance from the major settlement bank members of CLS (Continuous Linked Settlement). The worldwide head of Global Link, Simon Wilson-Taylor, said the acquisition was a step in State Street’s efforts to streamline communication for institutional investors, from pre-trade through post-trade. “;In 2007, more than $3 trillion in foreign exchange was transacted daily globally with no single, cost-effective means for particpants to centralise settlement details other than through individual duplicative databases,”; he said.