Legal encyclopedia. Letter K

CLEARING

(From English clearing - "clear") - a system of cashless payments for goods, securities and services, based on the offset of mutual claims, i.e. Settlement of payments, settlement method, when monetary claims (accounts receivable) of participants are repaid by their monetary obligations (accounts payable) without

Use of real money.

Clearing operations are classified according to two characteristics: the frequency of the conduct and the composition of the participants. On the first grounds, the bank is divided into a one-off one, which is carried out sporadically as accounts receivable and payable accumulate, or permanently operating, periodically irrespective of the status of monetary obligations and monetary claims of participants. Depending on the composition of participants, the bank may be bilateral or multilateral.

K. is possible if there are economic and other connections between its participants, when it is possible to build a consistent chain of monetary settlements.

The first banking clearing centers arose in the UK in the XVIII century. In Russia, clearing operations began to conduct settlement chambers at the institutions of the State Bank, established in 1898. During the period of "war communism" they were abolished.
In July 1922, the departments of mutual settlements were organized, which in the early 1930s. Were converted into a bureau of mutual settlements. The participants of the coalition were enterprises united by sectoral or territorial basis, and they were essentially structural subdivisions of the State Bank's institutions. In the 1970s. This system was eliminated.

In 1992, the Government of the Russian Federation proposed to the heads of local administrations, heads of ministries and departments, together with the heads of the main directorates

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation and relevant commercial banks to organize again work on conducting intraregional,

Inter-branch and inter-farm offsetting of mutual debts of enterprises.

At present, K. can be conducted both with the preliminary depositing of funds in the accounts of participants in the clearing institution, and without such deposition.

C. is carried out through special clearing houses, the Central Bank or the largest commercial banks, and between branches of one bank - through the clearing department of the main office.

There are two types of clearing:

1) internal (interbank - within the country);

2) international (foreign exchange), used in foreign trade or other forms of economic relations between two or more countries. Foreign exchange K-intergovernmental agreement on mutual offset of counterclaims and obligations arising from the cost equality of goods and services provided. It includes a set of mandatory elements: a system of clearing accounts; The amount of clearing (all payments on turnover or part thereof); Clearing currency (agreed settlement currency); The volume of technical credit (the maximum allowable debt balance - in percent of turnover or in the form of absolute value); A system for equalizing payments (by way of paying off the balance of debt, one distinguishes clearing currency without the right of conversion (payment only by commodity deliveries) and currency clearing with limited or full conversion); Final settlement scheme

Intergovernmental agreement. On the basis of the currency, settlements are also made between resident firms of the respective countries. In the case of the resolution of foreign exchange authorities, the foreign exchange rate does not prevent settlements in hard currency. In some cases, a company that has a clearing currency can pay it off with a resident firm of the same country.

The system of clearing settlements and on stock exchanges is widely used.