| In March 2003, Deutsche Börse introduced the Central Counterparty (CCP) on the Xetra® trading system and on the floor at FWB® Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse (the Frankfurt Stock Exchange). In trades between buyers and sellers, the CCP generally acts as a counterparty. Thus, Deutsche Börse has extended the existing two-tier process chain on the cash market (trading and settlement) by adding a clearing function. The highly sophisticated and, at the same time, flexible concept of the CCP offers market participants many advantages. The Central Counterparty ensures, for instance, for both buyers and sellers of equities absolute anonymity across the whole securities process chain. Another advantage of the CCP: participants are offered central risk management with immediate determination and provision of the risk positions and margin requirements. The functionality of gross delivery management enables market participants to plan their trades ahead of settlement, i.e., to decide when a trade is to be routed to settlement. With the CCP it is, moreover, possible to offset the purchases of a participant against its sales (netting). The Central Counterparty is the basis for the consolidation and standardization of clearing and settlement processes in the long term. The objective is to leverage potentials by means of which risks can be curbed and efficiency can be increased. The scope of the CCP can be extended to other securities. Furthermore, additional cash market and derivatives platforms as well as additional central securities depositories (CSD) can be integrated. In the long term, there are plans for an integrated clearing house for all markets and instruments. Structure of participants and technical access options The structure of the cash market, including traders, clearing participants and settlement houses, fully covers the securities process chain. Market participants who clear and/or settle trades either for their own account and/or for other participants, need access to the CCP. Its functions are made available via a client/server architecture. The latter consists of a CCP backend and a participant installation. The chart provides an overview of the CCP architecture: The proven Xetra and Eurex® communication architecture, which relies on the MISS/VALUES concept, serves as the basis for the CCP communication structure. Depending on their status, CCP participants can choose between different connection options. The following access possibilities to the CCP are available: - convenient browser-based graphical user interface (thin client) for interactive access using the Xetra/Eurex infrastructure
- programmable interface in the known Xetra/Eurex VALUES API format, which allows participants and distributors a simple integration of the CCP functionalities into existing system environments.
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The CCP Sales Support Team would be pleased to advise you on your individual connection. Furthermore, you will find our hotlines here. | 
