History

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Clearing (finance)
In banking and finance, clearing denotes all activities
from the time a commitment is made for a transaction
until it is settled. Clearing is necessary because the
speed of trades is much faster than the cycle time for
completing the underlying transaction.
In its widest sense clearing involves the management of
post-trading, pre-settlement credit exposures, to ensure
that trades are settled in accordance with market rules,
even if a buyer or seller should become insolvent prior
to settlement.
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Processes included in clearing are reporting/monitoring, risk
margining, netting of trades to single positions, tax handling, and failure
handling.
Systemically Important Payment Systems (SIPS) are payment systems which have the
characteristic that a failure of these systems could potentially endanger the
operation of the whole economy. In general, these are the major payment clearing
systems of individual countries, but in the case of Europe, there are certain
pan-European payment systems. TARGET2 is a pan-European SIPS dealing with major
inter-bank payments. STEP2, operated by the Euro Banking Association is a major
pan-European clearing system for retail payments which has the potential to
become a SIPS. The Federal Reserve Bank system is a SIPS.
World Marketplaces System is using Clearing in World Money
payments between the countries.