• Home
• /
• Participant Services
• /
• Services in Finland
• /
• Debt Market Clearing

Debt Market Clearing

Depository and settlement services for debt market transactions are processed in the Ramses system.  

Settlement in the system is possible only for book-entry form debt instruments like

• bonds
• certificates of deposit
• commercial papers
• treasury bills
• municipality papers

Trading is normally carried out by telephone by the Front Offices and the data are entered into the Ramses system for clearing by the Back Offices.

Since the depository systems for book-entry form equities and debt instruments are separate, clients need to open an account for depositing and trading of debt transactions with the Ramses account operator of their choice.

The normal clearing period for

• bonds is 3 banking days (T + 3)
• zero-coupon instruments 2 banking days (T + 2)

Significant numbers of trades are carried out at T + 0. Book-entry trades are settled in real time on the day of delivery when the book-entries and payments are brought together/transferred on the accounts designated for clearing.

Book-entries and payments are remitted gross, and the process is called Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS). The Ramses system thus does not use batch runs for clearing and transferring the property at a predefined time. Money transactions related to clearing are always in euros and processed via Euroclear Finland's cheque account with the TARGET2. RTGS is always an option when the system is open between 8.00 a.m. and 7.00 p.m.

Ramses book-entry accounts
Book-entry accounts are also maintained in Ramses system, the debt market system of Euroclear Finland. The book-entry accounts are very similar to the ones used to hold book-entry form equity securities. The main difference is that Ramses accounts can hold only debt form instruments issued in the wholesale market. Ramses account is opened by a bank or investment firm acting as an account operator in the system for every private person and institutional investor holding or investing in the securities.

Unlike in the book-entry system for equities, where free of charge depository services is available, all Ramses system participants are commercial account operators.