Finality
- 03:33
Understand the risks involved with clearing systems
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Okay, so let's have a look at the way clearing systems work and the risks involved. To be a member of any of the settlement systems, a financial institution has to have a bank account with the central bank. An end of day net settlement system is one where the central bank will be checking for transactions that are being processed. There's no doubt, an internal link within the central bank and each finance institution. And if a financial institution has got more payments going out than it's receiving in and it's breached its limit, the central bank will just hold back on some payments being made. Now, this can cause problems because it means that payments that are meant that are due out from a particular bank don't go out for a while until receipts are received, which can actually cause for extensions because some organizations wait until the last minute until they make their payments waiting on funds coming in first thing in the morning. And if a bank were to collapse or a financial institution would collapse during the day, any receipts that have been received in prior to them making any payments out, I mean, they got the funds before they initiate a payment out. An intraday net settlement system again, financial institution needs to have a, an account, a bank account with the central bank to be a member of this. And normally what happens is during the day, at specific times, the central bank will do a reconciliation and we'll post the appropriate debit or credit to the member's account. A little bit less risk here, but at the end of the day, if a financial institution were to collapse in between the times of the intraday settlement, then value may have been given for a transaction that that shouldn't have been. Now real time growth settlement is where we are in most of the countries these days. For our RTGS the financial institution's account will be debited at the central bank, and at the same time, the beneficiaries account will be credited at the central bank. So it is completely real time instantaneous. Risk, absolutely zero unless of course a central banquet collapse. But that then that's a problem across all of them. Continuous linked settlement, you need to have an account with the central bank. The central bank needs to be operating in a currency that is supported by CLS. These are dates stamped and are all to do with FX transactions and very high ticket value transactions. The purpose of this for CLS was to get around Herstatt risk. The central banks of the currencies that are members of CLS are all open at the same time for part of a 24 hour period, allowing for all the FX trades across both sides of the transaction to be processed instantaneously. Therefore, getting rid of the risk involved. Now, what we'll have picked up here is that constantly it's all about institutions having an account relationship with a central bank. So central banks have got themselves a lot more intrinsically involved and controlling the way transaction flows happen. This has really grown since the financial crisis back in 2008. Now the big thing for corporates and for all of us is when do we get finality? If I'm running a corporate and I sell goods, I do not wish to release goods until I know the payment I have received is completely irrevocable. In the olden days when I used to get checks, I used to have to wait the best part of a week to make sure the check didn't bounce. ACH payments took a little while to get through to me, and it was expensive to receive some forms of wires. This has all come down now that we've all got instantaneous, we're using electronic transfers for everything. So the good news is in the modern day when you actually get receipts for funds, I would suggest that over 90% of the time you've got finality. But if in doubt, always check. When has that payment that I've received become irrevocable? Now let's look at a couple of statements and let's, let's talk through them and see what you think. All money is really held in central bank accounts. Well, I have some cash in my back pocket. Is that held in a central bank account? And all dollars are in New York. Well, I happen to have a bank account in US Dollars myself. So are those Dollars held in New York? Have a think.