/ 1 September 1999

JSE SWITCHOVER ON TRACK

THE long-awaited launch of electronic settlement on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange is on track for next month, the bourse said on Friday. Its president Russell Loubser announced the first leg of the Share Transactions Totally Electronic (Strate) project will go live at the end of September when two illiquid, as yet unnamed, shares will move onto the paperless settlement system. He also announced the eight banks that will become the drivers of Strate, keeping electronic records of all share transactions and acting as a middleman between the new, centralised system and shareholders.