Payments and markets glossary

A member of a clearing house that clears on its own behalf, on behalf of its customers and on behalf of other market participants. See also clearing member, direct clearing member, non-clearing member

A physical or virtual card entitling the recipient to receive goods or services of a specified value from the issuer.

A single physical certificate that covers all or part of an issue of securities. See also global note

A custodian that provides its customers with custody services in respect of securities traded and settled in several countries around the world.

The term used when a global certificate relates to fixed income instruments (e.g. bonds). See also global certificate

Procedures through which the objectives of a legal entity are set, the means of achieving them are identified and the performance of the entity is measured. This refers, in particular, to the set of relationships between the entity’s owners, board of directors, management, users and regulators, as well as other stakeholders that influence these outcomes.

The decision-making entity/ies responsible for the governance of an electronic payment instrument scheme or arrangement.

The function in charge of controlling the arrangement’s functionalities by (i) defining the respective rules or terms and conditions as well as ensuring (ii) the effective enforcement of the former. This does not exclude the delegation of responsibilities for certain functionalities to other actors.

The function of a scheme responsible for ensuring the overall functioning of the scheme by (i) setting formal, standardised and common rules for participation and/or the use of electronic payment instruments and (ii) effective enforcement. This does not exclude the delegation of responsibilities to other actors.

A situation that can arise in a funds or securities transfer system in which a failure to execute one or more transfer orders prevents the execution of a substantial number of orders submitted by other participants. See also queuing, systemic risk

A mechanism whereby the margin that a participant posts in a central counterparty (CCP) for its customers’ positions is the sum of the requirements for individual customers.

The settlement of transfer orders one by one. See also net settlement

A transfer system in which transfer orders are settled one by one. See also net settlement system, real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system

A fund which compensates non-defaulting participants for losses which they suffer in the event that one or more participants default on their obligations. See also clearing fund, collateral pool