Clearing, Settlement and Custody

Clearing, settlement and custody are primarily back office functions that are mostly transparent to the end customer, and to a great deal, the introducing broker/dealer. Most broker/dealers do not have the internal capacity to handle their own clearing, custody and settlement so they contract with a clearing firm to handle that for them.

Once a trade is executed it must be compared with the counterparty and settled, if it is a U.S. stock transaction, in three (3) business days. To achieve this themselves, firms would need a large investment in people and technology, so many firms choose to outsource these functions and other operational functions to firms that specialize in this aspect of the securities business.

Penson competes with numerous large banks and financial institutions in providing these services, however Penson is different. Rather than offering a one-size-fits-all package or several different preset packages of services like most of the competition, Penson uses its flexibility to provide customized packages of services to allow correspondents to conduct their business according to their needs and business model.