History

CDSC HISTORY

In 1995, the idea for a Central Depository was mooted and a study commissioned to look into its viability. A Draft bill was submitted to Parliament in 1997 and three years later the Central Depositories Act, 2000 was passed. CDSC was incorporated with the signing of a shareholders’ agreement.

A search for a technology solution begun, culminating in the tender award to Millennium Information Technology (MIT) of Sri Lanka for the provision of a Central Depository System in 2002.

In November 2004, CDS operations commenced. CDS account opening begun in earnest, and Immobilization (a process of converting shares from physical certificates to electronic form and depositing into CDS accounts) and Delivery verses Payment (DVP) Settlement begun in tranches.

On 28th February 2005, full DVP settlement for all listed companies at the NSE was achieved. Market education training took place in 2005.

The KenGen Initial Public Offer in 2006 was the first major operation for CDSC. This saw a huge increase in the number of CDS accounts opened. CDSC also played a fundamental role in the listing of Safaricom, the largest IPO in the East and Central Africa region, where the number of CDS accounts increased from 0.8 to 1.7 million.

CDSC continues to live up to its mission of realizing efficiency by settling trades in 4 days and is seeking ways of further reducing this period.

Having set the platform for the implementation of the Automated Trading System (ATS) by the NSE in 2006, CDSC has catapulted the Kenyan Capital Markets into the global arena with a commitment to achieving transactional trust, integrity and dynamism in the market.

CDSC continues to set the stage for integration with other markets in the region.