Delivery versus Payment

DvPDelivery versus Payment

A rule that an asset only moves if the payment for it moves at the same instant — never one without the other.

For example: Like buying a house where the keys and the money are legally required to change hands in the same second. You cannot hand over the keys and hope the buyer pays next week, and they cannot pay and hope you move out.

Atomic settlement

A guarantee that a set of linked steps either all happen together or none happen at all. There is no half-finished state. 'Atomic' here means indivisible, not nuclear.

For example: Think of a vending machine that will not take your coin unless the drink is ready to drop. Either you get the drink and it gets the money, or nothing moves and you keep your coin. There is no state where it has your money and you have nothing.

Escrow

Holding money or an asset in a neutral, locked state — committed by the sender but not yet released to the receiver — until agreed conditions are met.

For example: When buying online from a marketplace, your payment is often held by the platform until you confirm the item arrived. The seller cannot touch it, and you cannot take it back on a whim.

Legal finalitySettlement finality

The point at which the law says a transfer is permanent and cannot be unwound — including if one party later goes bankrupt. It is a legal question, decided country by country, and is not the same as software saying 'complete'.

For example: Your system shows a payment as settled at 10:00. At 11:00 the receiving company collapses and a court decides the 10:00 transfer can be clawed back into the bankruptcy pool. Technically it settled; legally it was not final.

CSDCentral Securities Depository

The institution holding the official record of who owns which shares and bonds, and updating it when they are traded. It is the master register for securities.

For example: When you buy shares through an app, the app is not the real record. This institution updates the definitive ledger behind the scenes saying the shares are now yours.

Settlement

The moment value actually changes hands and the deal is genuinely done — not just agreed, promised, or sitting as pending. Before settlement, someone is still owed something.

For example: You tap your card at 9am and the shop says 'approved'. That is authorisation, not settlement. The money may only actually leave your account two days later — that later moment is settlement.