A central securities depository (CSD) is a specialized financial market infrastructure organization holding securities like shares, either in certificated or uncertificated (dematerialized) form, allowing ownership to be easily transferred through a book entry rather than by a transfer of physical certificates. This allows brokers and financial companies to hold their securities at one location where they can be available for clearing and settlement. This is usually done electronically, making it much faster and easier than was traditionally the case where physical certificates had to be exchanged after a trade had been completed.
In some cases these organizations also carry out centralized comparison, and transaction processing such as clearing and settlement of securities transfers, securities pledges, and securities freezes.
In modern corporate debt markets, investors achieve collateralization through CSDs. The CSDs operate as trustees for the owners of the security whereby the collateral is stored and automatically transferred to the lenders in case of non-performance. [1]
A CSD can be national or international in nature, and may be for a specific type of security, such as government bonds.
Many countries have one domestic CSD that was traditionally associated with the national stock exchange. These organizations are typically heavily regulated by the government and may or may not be separate from the exchanges where trading in securities occurs.
An international CSD is a central securities depository that settles trades in international securities such as eurobonds although many also settle trades in various domestic securities, usually through direct or indirect (through local agents) links to local CSDs. Examples of international CSDs include Clearstream (previously Cedel), Euroclear and SIX SIS. While viewed as a national CSD rather than an ICSD, the US Depository Trust Company (DTC) does hold over $2 trillion in non-US securities and in American depositary receipts from over 100 nations.
However, there are risks and responsibilities regarding these services that must be taken into consideration in analyzing and evaluating each market on a case-by-case basis. [2]
A security is a tradable financial asset. The term commonly refers to any form of financial instrument, but its legal definition varies by jurisdiction. In some countries and languages people commonly use the term "security" to refer to any form of financial instrument, even though the underlying legal and regulatory regime may not have such a broad definition. In some jurisdictions the term specifically excludes financial instruments other than equity and fixed income instruments. In some jurisdictions it includes some instruments that are close to equities and fixed income, e.g., equity warrants.
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) is an American financial market infrastructure company that provides clearing, settlement and trade reporting services to financial market participants. It performs the exchange of securities on behalf of buyers and sellers and functions as a central securities depository by providing central custody of securities.
A eurobond is an international bond that is denominated in a currency not native to the country where it is issued. They are also called external bonds. They are usually categorised according to the currency in which they are issued: eurodollar, euroyen, and so on. The name became somewhat misleading with the advent of the euro currency in 1999; eurobonds were created in the 1960s, before the euro existed, and thus the etymology is to "European bonds" rather than "bonds denominated in the Euro currency".
CREST is a UK-based central securities depository that holds UK equities and UK gilts, as well as Irish equities and other international securities.
Clearstream is a financial services company that specializes in the settlement of securities transactions and is owned by Deutsche Börse AG. It provides settlement and custody as well as other related services for securities across all asset classes. It is one of two European International central securities depositories.
In banking and finance, clearing refers to all activities from the time a commitment is made for a transaction until it is settled. This process turns the promise of payment into the actual movement of money from one account to another. Clearing houses were formed to facilitate such transactions among banks.
Settlement is the "final step in the transfer of ownership involving the physical exchange of securities or payment". After settlement, the obligations of all the parties have been discharged and the transaction is considered complete.
In finance, securities lending or stock lending refers to the lending of securities by one party to another.
Euroclear is a Belgium-based financial services company that specialises in the clearing and settlement of securities transactions, as well as the safekeeping and asset servicing of these securities. It was founded in 1968 as part of J.P. Morgan & Co. to settle trades on the then developing eurobond market. It is one of two European international central securities depositories.
T2S (TARGET2-Securities) is a European securities settlement engine which aims to offer centralised delivery-versus-payment (DvP) settlement in central bank funds across all European securities markets. It is important to take note of the fact that T2S is not a central securities depository (CSD), but a platform intended to enable CSDs to increase their competitiveness.
LCH is a financial market infrastructure company headquartered in London that provides clearing services to major international exchanges and to a range of OTC markets. The LCH Group includes two main entities: LCH Limited based in London and LCH SA based in Paris.
The Moscow Exchange is the largest exchange in Russia, operating trading markets in equities, bonds, derivatives, the foreign exchange market, money markets, and precious metals. The Moscow Exchange also operates Russia's central securities depository, the National Settlement Depository (NSD), and the country's largest clearing service provider, the National Clearing Centre. The exchange was formed in 2011 in a merger of the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange and the Russian Trading System.
European Central Securities Depositories Association (ECSDA) is the official trade association for the Central Securities Depository industry in Europe. The association provides a forum for Central Securities Depositories (CSDs) to exchange views and take forward projects of mutual interest.
A triparty required value (RQV) is the value of collateral required by a securities lending lender in exchange for the outstanding loans that they have made to their borrower. An RQV will be satisfied through a combination of collateral types, such as equities, government bonds, convertible bonds, cash, or other products. RQV collateral requirements can be very complicated, involving instrument attributes such as how heavily traded they are, their minimum price, specific indexes, redemption dates, and other fields.
The National Settlement Depository (NSD), headquartered in Moscow, is a Russian non-bank financial institution and central securities depository (CSD). It provides depository, settlement, and related services to financial market entities. Its services cover both securities listed in Russia's 2011 Federal Law "On the Central Securities Depository", and other Russian and foreign equity and debt securities. NSD is the CSD of the Russian Federation, and was assigned CSD status by the Russian Federal Financial Markets Service in 2012. It is the largest securities depository in Russia by market value of equity and debt securities held in custody, which in June 2022 were 70 trillion roubles. It is a member of the Moscow Exchange Group. In March 2022, in the wake of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, NSD's accounts were blocked and frozen at international CSDs Euroclear and Clearstream. In addition, the European Union added NSD to its sanctions list, blocking NSD's accounts in euros, and in Euroclear and Clearstream; as a result, NSD could not service forex-denominated bonds issued by Russia and Russian companies. NSD suspended transactions in euros.
Securities market participants in the United States include corporations and governments issuing securities, persons and corporations buying and selling a security, the broker-dealers and exchanges which facilitate such trading, banks which safe keep assets, and regulators who monitor the markets' activities. Investors buy and sell through broker-dealers and have their assets retained by either their executing broker-dealer, a custodian bank or a prime broker. These transactions take place in the environment of equity and equity options exchanges, regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), or derivative exchanges, regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). For transactions involving stocks and bonds, transfer agents assure that the ownership in each transaction is properly assigned to and held on behalf of each investor.
China Central Depository & Clearing Co., Ltd., in short CCDC or ChinaBond, is a central securities depository (CSD) for Chinese government bonds, based in Beijing with a secondary headquarters in Shanghai. It was originally set up by the People's Bank of China as China Securities Trading System Co., Ltd. in 1993, and reorganized into CCDC in 1996. It is one of China's three dominant CSDs, together with China Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation (CSDC) and the Shanghai Clearing House (SHCH).
Central Securities Depository of Iran (CSDI) is a CSD organization working as the pre-trade and post-trade service company in the Iranian capital market. It is an independent self-regulatory entity, considered the central registrar of all exchange-traded securities and financial instruments in the Iranian capital market.
The Central Depository of Armenia (CDA) is the Central Depository of Armenia, established in 1996. The CDA is one of the oldest securities market institutions in the country and is headquartered in Yerevan. The Central Bank of Armenia is the regulatory body of the CDA. The CDA is a full member of the Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges.
Financial market infrastructure refers to systems and entities involved in clearing, settlement, and the recording of payments, securities, derivatives, and other financial transactions. Depending on context, financial market infrastructure may refer to the category in general, or to individual companies or entities.