• Home
• /
• Participant Services
• /
• Services in Finland
• /
• Equity clearing

Equity clearing

In general, in NASDAQ OMX Helsinki a Broker has two alternatives to have the trades settled in the clearing and settlement system of the Euroclear Finland Ltd:

• A broker using the services of an existing clearing party
• A broker to act as a clearing party and an account operator or an agent

The broker use the services of an existing clearing party
The clearing party carries out the settlement of the trades of the broker as well as of its own trades in its own name and own risk. In order to separate the trades of the broker from the clearing party, we will assign a new clearing-party code for the broker.

Default clearing party
The clearing party submits the agreement on clearing services between the broker and itself to us for assessment. It also delivers the power of authority for the clearing and settlement of trades. The broker doesn´t need to apply for the rights of a clearing party from us if it refers the clearing of its trades to be handled by a third party.

Give-up clearing party
The broker may agree with another clearing party and a customer on the operation as a contract clearing party.

The broker acts as a clearing party, an account operator or an agent
The broker who has been granted the rights of a clearing party is directly responsible to us and other clearing parties for the settlement of the all transactions. The clearing party also always acts as an account operator or its agent. A party applying for the rights of a clearing party should simultaneously also apply for the rights of an account operator or its agent.

Clearing party's responsibilities and obligations
The clearing party manages both payments and deliveries of book-entry securities. The alternatives of the clearing party are:

• Registration of the trades and other transactions in the clearing and settlement system, the monitoring of the clearing and settlement process for its part as well as for fulfilling the obligations arising therefrom
• Acquiring services from another clearing party

In this case the liability of the clearing party for the trades and other transactions remains unchanged but the personnel of the clearing party providing the clearing services is responsible for the practical measures of the clearing process.    
Account Operator's responsibilities and obligations
The account operator or its agent takes care of the transactions related to keeping book-entry accounts of its customers. The account operator should be able to:

• establish and maintain customers and book-entry accounts in our book-entry register
• send messages of book-entry transfers, subscriptions, restrictions, and rights holders to our book-entry register
• receive application messages and manual applications for making transactions in Euroclear Finland's book-entry register
• receive notification messages from us on transactions made by Euroclear Finland's book-entry register
• reconciliate its own records on book-entry accounts with book-entry accounts in our register
• take care of dividend, interest, and redemption payments and their corrections according to Finnish law, orders of Finnish tax authorities, and Euroclear Finland's Rules  

It is possible for the account operator to buy services from an existing account operator. In that case it needs to conclude an agreement with the service provider and submit it for assessment to Euroclear Finland and the Financial Supervisory Authority.  

Granting the right to act as an agent of an account operator requires an agreement between the two parties. The agreement needs to be submitted to Euroclear Finland for assessment.