Financial Education

DCV is a key entity for the functioning of the financial market. It is the only depository of securities in Chile and, without it, many operations could not occur.

Law 18,876 provides the Depósito Central de Valores, DCV, a key and exclusive role in the operation of the market, as well as the legal framework for its incorporation and operation. Basically, it is the entity where three worlds converge: the issuers of securities, intermediaries and investors and payment systems. In effect, without its existence the transfer of ownership of securities could not occur.

What are the three worlds that converge?

The first is the issuers of instruments that may be private sector entities (banks, sociedades anónimas, or others) and the public sector (the Central Bank of Chile, the General Treasury of the Republic, and the Social Security Institute). The second is investors, companies and individuals that negotiate -through intermediaries-, and that generate operations in the stock exchanges or in markets outside the stock market (also called OTC, Over-the-Counter). And, finally, the third of the worlds is of the payment systems comprising the institutions, rules and procedures through which the transfers of funds between economic agents are made. Payment systems can be classified according to the volume and nature of the money transfers they process. In Chile, three entities act as payment systems: The Central Bank of Chile, Combanc and CCLV Contraparte Central.

But how do these three worlds interact? The issuers issue securities, which are born in an electronic manner and are recorded in the account that the issuer maintains at DCV. Investors, meanwhile, invest through intermediaries, in these securities, which the latter intermediaries register as buying or selling operations in DCV's systems. Finally, when the settlement day arrives, DCV coordinates with the payment systems, the payment process against the delivery of the securities, ensuring that who receives (or delivers) the "value" of the purchase (or sale), delivers the payment in money (or its value) as agreed with the buyer (or seller).

To ensure the proper functioning of the market, a central element that incorporates DCV is security, delivering certainty regarding the existence and ownership of the securities that are being bought or sold, and ensuring the transfer of the property once the payment is instructed.

DCV maintains UF 9,258.3 million in custody, which is equivalent to US$328.8 billion, that is, 1.3 times the national GDP, and performs approximately 150,000 transactions per month. None of this would be possible without safe, transparent and reliable management for the entire financial market.

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