Glosario de términos

Credit to account
A credit entry in an account which increases the account's balance. Cheques marked "to be credited to account" or with a similar expression on the obverse can only be cashed if they are previously deposited in a current account, never directly over-the-counter.
Clearing house
A system made up of a group of bank institutions in order to exchange and settle all kinds of counterclaim assets or documents.
Central Securities Depository
A service that registers securities and allows operations to be processed as book entries. Securities can be held in physical form or in a dematerialised form (whereby they only exist as book entries). In addition to its custodial and administration functions (issuance and redemption), it may perform comparison, clearing and settlement functions.
Continuous Linked Settlement (CLS)
A payment system to settle foreign currency purchase and sales operations. It was created in 2002 by large credit institutions with high volumes of foreign currency operations. Its headquarters are in London. This payment system allows simultaneous crediting and debiting of the foreign currencies for each operation (payment versus payment) in the accounts of the institutions involved, eliminating so-called settlement risk - the risk that one of the counterparties breaches its commitment to pay. The currencies settled through the system are: euros, US dollars, pounds sterling, the yen, Swiss francs, Canadian dollars and Australian dollars. Settlement of operations in euros takes place through TARGET in an account the CLS holds in the payments mechanism of the European Central Bank (ECB).
CCC
The current account code, made up of 20 digits in Spain, that identifies an operative current account in a credit institution.
Clearing bank documents
To exchange debit and credit documents that represent mutual obligations (such as cheques, bank bills, etc.), in such a manner that it is only necessary to pay the resulting net amounts after the clearing process.
Counterparty
Generally speaking, the opposite party in a financial transaction. Within the sphere of the Eurosystem, this expression refers to the group of euro area credit institutions used to perform certain monetary policy-related operations. In order to be recognised as such, the institutions must fulfil the following general selection criteria: Be governed by the minimum reserve requirement system established by the Eurosystem. Be financially solvent. Fulfil the operating requirements established by national central banks and, where applicable, the ECB. The selected entities may: Participate in Eurosystem open market transactions: main refinancing operations, longer-term refinancing operations, fine-tuning operations and structural operations. Access standing facilities.
Central counterparty institution
An entity which, in contracts traded on one or more financial markets, interposes between the counterparties, acting as the buy with respect to the seller and as the seller with respect to the buyer.
Correspondent central banking model (CCBM)
A mechanism established by the European System of Central Banks with the aim of enabling credit institutions to use assets deposited in another European Union state as collateral in monetary policy operations or intraday credit operations processed through the TARGET payment system. Each central bank, acting as a correspondent, opens and maintains security accounts where it registers the collateral assets of the central bank that extends the financing.
Credit card

An electronic instrument that allows payment to be made for consumer goods and services, usually deferred to the end of the month, without requiring cash availability. It also allows money to be withdrawn from automatic cash machines, although a charge applies for this type of operation.
Cashcard

An electronic means of payment for small amounts, which has a chip that can be topped up by a given amount (generally at an automatic cash machine). Once the available balance has run out, it can be topped up again.