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Post-trading

Post-trading embraces a series of functions serving to ensure the final settlement of the contracts concluded, i.e. the exchange of the financial instruments involved in the contract for the agreed amount of cash. Settlement can be either gross (transaction by transaction) or net (settlement of the balance resulting from the clearing of transactions).

In addition, the trades pending settlement may be backed by the guarantee of final settlement, provided by a central counterparty at the time of the original transaction.

An essential contribution to the smoothness of trading, the timely functioning of the clearing and settlement systems and the overall efficiency of the markets is made by central securities depositories, through which ownership of securities is transferred by book entries to the accounts of the interested parties.

Bank of Italy supervision of post-trading concerns these activities as a whole, not only the transactions originating from the markets on which the Bank has specific responsibilities.