Since September 1998 the Euronext Lisbon Clearing House has had its Quality Guarantee System certified under said standard. This certification was granted by the SGS ICS, member of the "Independent International Organization for Certification" (IIOC).
The scope of the certification covers the Registration, Clearing, Settlement and Guarantee of financial operations, covering all markets in which the Clearing House renders services, i.e., derivatives market, repo and securities lending market.
This process assumed, at various levels, an innovative character, both by the speed at which it took place and by being a pioneering project, as the Clearing House was the first at a European level and the second on a worldwide level (immediately after BM&F of São Paulo) to achieve this certificate.
Since the certification date, its activity was the target of three audits in order to verify that its system was in line, including procedures, processes, resources, objectives and quality policy. The last audit took place on February 22nd with the aim renewing this certificate for another three years.
The implementation of the certification process of the Clearing House, recognizing the conformity of its system with the obtaining of an ISO certificate, is natural value added for this area of the exchange, but also for the market with which it relates to.
A fundamental part of the quality policy carried out is the focus placed on the client's "person", intending to forecast the possibility of abnormal situations occurring during current activity, and providing all the support needed to resolve the problems that may arise and put into question the normal running of the markets.
Finally, the underlying philosophy to the implementation of the quality policy points to a participative and wide management, from top management to all Clearing House collaborators. The involvement of all in maintaining the Quality Guarantee System guarantees its success.
The Clearing House is integrated in Euronext Lisbon, a model adopted by the majority of recently constituted derivatives markets. It began in 1996 in order to provide for the needs arising with the launch of the national derivatives market.
It is the Clearing House's responsibility to provide a registration, clearing and settlement service for financial operations. It is also its responsibility, due to it acting as central counterpart, to manage the guarantees and risk control system.
Having began its activity with futures contracts, its scope was widened with the introduction of new products as in 1992 with repo operations, in 1998 with securities lending operations and the following year with options contracts. During 2001 the services provided were widened to Spanish derivatives products due to the link established between the former BVLP and MEFF.
