The London International Stock Exchange yesterday voted to bring the costly Taurus paperless trading fiasco to an end and kill the project, and the Bank of England established a task force on securities settlement following an approach by the Stock Exchange, to consider best way forward for development of securities settlement, share registration and share transfer in the UK and to identify possible alternatives to Taurus, having regard to speed of implementation, cost, ownership, governance and financing, as well as system structure, to recommend a preferred option and to make recommendations for managing its implementation and to report to the governor of the Bank of England by the end of June 1993 at the latest; the abandonment of project, which cost the Exchange UKP75m and City firms preparing for it a lot more, cost 220 direct employees and another 130 contractors their jobs.
