CLS, the financial market infrastructure group that runs the largest payment-versus-payment settlement system for foreign exchange, appointed six new members to its board of directors.

The new directors are James Hardy, an independent director, Richard James of Deutsche Bank, Sandra Laielli van Scherpenzeel of UBS Switzerland AG, Matthieu Mercier of BNP Paribas CIB, Chadwick Renfro, an independent director, and Boyd Winston of JPMorgan Chase Bank.

With the additions, the CLS board now has 21 directors, eight of them designated as outside or independent.

Board Chairman Gottfried Leibbrandt linked the new directors' expertise to the company's risk agenda.

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"Settlement risk remains a key focus for the FX industry," he said, adding that the appointees' backgrounds in information security, operational resilience and risk management Risk Management One of the most common terms utilized by brokers, risk management refers to the practice of identifying potential risks in advance. Most commonly, this also involves the analysis of risk and the undertaking of precautionary steps to both mitigate and prevent for such risk.Such efforts are essential for brokers and venues in the finance industry, given the potential for fallout in the face of unforeseen events or crises. Given a more tightly regulated environment across nearly every asset class, One of the most common terms utilized by brokers, risk management refers to the practice of identifying potential risks in advance. Most commonly, this also involves the analysis of risk and the undertaking of precautionary steps to both mitigate and prevent for such risk.Such efforts are essential for brokers and venues in the finance industry, given the potential for fallout in the face of unforeseen events or crises. Given a more tightly regulated environment across nearly every asset class, Read this Term would support the firm's work across the global FX system.

A Board Tilting Toward Security and Resilience

Half of the new appointees come from security and operational-resilience roles rather than front-office trading.

Hardy is the former chief resilience officer and executive vice president at State Street, where he spent more than two decades and represented the bank at industry bodies including SIFMA and the Global Financial Markets Association.

Mercier is global chief information security officer and head of operational resilience at BNP Paribas CIB, a role focused on cybersecurity, IT risk and conduct frameworks.

Renfro previously served as chief information security officer at both Bank of America and Fidelity Investments, overseeing more than 1,200 security staff at the former.

The remaining three bring FX and markets operations experience. James runs FX digital distribution at Deutsche Bank, Laielli van Scherpenzeel leads cash banks and institutional banking at UBS Switzerland, and Winston oversees global macro operations and EMEA operations at JPMorgan.

Why Settlement Risk Still Drives CLS

CLS settles trades in 18 currencies and processes trillions of dollars in payment instructions on a typical day, using a payment-versus-payment model that releases one currency leg only when the other is received.

The mechanism is designed to remove the risk that a counterparty pays out but never gets paid back, a vulnerability exposed by the 1974 collapse of Germany's Herstatt Bank.

The settlement-risk problem has not gone away. The Bank for International Settlements has repeatedly flagged that a meaningful share of daily FX turnover FX Turnover FX turnover is the sum value of all transactions performed in the foreign exchange market during any specific time although, generally, they are computed monthly. When used in a technical analysis application, FX turnover measures the efficiency and magnitude of asset allocations while a growing turnover is a defining trait of an active bullish market. In forex trading, the volume histogram is one of the most utilized indicators to measure FX turnover. This construct helps plot trading volumes t FX turnover is the sum value of all transactions performed in the foreign exchange market during any specific time although, generally, they are computed monthly. When used in a technical analysis application, FX turnover measures the efficiency and magnitude of asset allocations while a growing turnover is a defining trait of an active bullish market. In forex trading, the volume histogram is one of the most utilized indicators to measure FX turnover. This construct helps plot trading volumes t Read this Term still settles without PvP protection, particularly in emerging-market currencies that CLS does not cover.

That gap has driven demand for the firm's bilateral netting tool, with global banks adopting CLSNet as regulators pressed the industry on the issue.

Volumes have set records along the way. CLS settled $19.1 trillion in a single day at one point, surpassing a previous high of $16.3 trillion.

The company has also extended its model beyond spot settlement, launching a PvP service for cleared FX derivatives as it looks to widen the share of the market running through its rails.

A Bank-Heavy Bench

The new slate reflects CLS's ownership structure, which is held by the major dealing banks that use its system. F

our of the six appointees hold senior roles at Deutsche Bank, UBS, BNP Paribas and JPMorgan, while the two independent directors carry resilience and cybersecurity track records.

CLS is owned and governed by its member banks, an arrangement that gives the largest FX dealers direct representation on the board overseeing the infrastructure they depend on.

The firm describes itself as created by the market for the market, and its director appointments are voted on by shareholders at the annual meeting.

The appointments add to a steady reshaping of the CLS board in recent years as the utility expands its services and faces growing regulatory attention on operational and cyber resilience across market infrastructure.