By Marc Jones
LONDON, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Chile's central bank expects thecountry's peso currency to be added to the heavyweight globalCLS foreign exchange settlement system by 2021, its governorMario Marcel said on Wednesday.
CLS is owned by dozens of the world's largest commercialbanks and has become a crucial piece of FX market infrastructuresince its launch in 2002.
Last month $1.75 trillion was settled daily on its platformon average, about a third of the $5.1 trillion traded every dayon the global forex market.
The platform currently has 18 currencies, but only theMexican peso from Latin America. Chile hopes joining it wouldbolster the Chilean peso's international standing and Santiago'shopes of becoming a regional finance centre.
"We are prepared to dedicate all the time and resources toit," Marcel told Reuters in an interview in London, pointing to2021 as the expected joining date.
CLS is seen as an advantage because it allows for real timesettlement of international trades, which helps eliminate'counter party risk'. It also reduces the need to hold so muchliquidity because transactions are settled on a net basis.
The last country to join was Hungary, in a process that took2-1/2 years. To become a CLS member, local banks need to be inagreement and the central bank has to meet some key operationalrequirements, such as its own systems being live at the righttimes.
That is tricky for Chile as one of the key times forinternational FX settlement comes in the middle of its night,meaning central bank staff may have to set up new night shifts.
"It is a very carefully crafted process but we already had alarge mission from CLS in June. The feeling was with Chileanbanks, with the financial institutions, that the outcome wasextremely positive."
"It is already seven to eight months since we started, weare making good progress, but we know this is not something yourush," Marcel added.(Reporting by Marc Jones, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)