According to the current legislation, clearing activity is a process of determining the obligations of the parties to each other and their offsetting. Thus, only the difference between the amount owed by one counterparty and the amount owed by another is payable.
Clearing activities may be carried out either by a specially organized unit at the enterprise, or by a third-party company providing these services. If we talk about clearing in the field of banking services, then at present a credit institution can act as various participants in netting relationships, for example, be a direct counterparty, or perform the functions of a third-party company.
A key participant in transactions aimed at offsetting mutual claims, the credit institution is when making settlements with other banks. In modern market relations, interbank clearing has acquired great importance, as it frees employees from performing unnecessary operations, which significantly saves time and frees it up for other more important matters. In this case, the paperwork, the timing of the operation and other conditions are established by agreement of the parties. If clearing activity is carried out by banks as an additional service, then the relevant agreement of the legal entity with the credit institution will be considered as the basis. And the operation is carried out by studying and working out the documentation provided by the client.
Companies that perform the relevant services must have a license that gives them the right to carry out a particular activity. Only after that they can help other legal entities in settlements with counterparties and partners, control the movement of funds in their accounts and offset the mutual obligations. Some banks consider it inexpedient to create a separate division specializing in clearing. In this case, they can resort to the services of a third-party organization, in particular, offer them to their customers.
In addition, clearing activities provide banks with significant advantages. The fact is that if companies place funds on a separate account that act as a guarantor of meeting the requirements of the parties, then, with the appropriate permission, the credit institution has the right to use them as credit resources. In this case, one prerequisite must be observed: a refund is made at the appointed time and in full. Any violation of this rule may cause an imbalance in the conduct of further operations, which will negatively affect the reputation of the bank.
For full-fledged operations to offset the claims of the parties in the bank, it is necessary to open a clearing account. Moreover, it can store funds in both national and foreign currencies, depending on the terms of the agreement with the client. According to the current legislation, if the state authorities recognized the clearing company as unprofitable and mired in debt, it is forbidden to stop settlements on the accounts of the company's clients during the proceedings. When a company is declared bankrupt, all resources of legal entities-clients are subject to obligatory return in full.
At the international level, currency clearing is carried out, that is, an agreement between two or more countries on offsetting mutual obligations to each other. In this case, the problem of calculating and paying the final balance arises, since it becomes necessary to exchange the national currency unit for the currency of another country. Currency clearing is considered a fairly convenient and common form of settlements between representatives of different countries. At the same time, several types of it are distinguished: with conditional, free conversion of the balance or absolutely non-convertible. The latter assumes the inability to settle in foreign currency, so the procedure is usually performed in commodity form.