Post-trade infrastructure, domestic and cross-border
The ContiSX Central Securities Depository does two jobs. Inside a market, it is the registry, custody and settlement layer an exchange, issuer or licensed operator runs on. Between markets, it settles and collateralises securities across borders — cash clearing in local currency on central-bank rails.
One depository, two dimensions
The same infrastructure answers two different needs. Most operators start with one and grow into the other.
Domestic post-trade
Inside a single market, the CSD is the record of ownership. Exchanges, government issuers, institutions and licensed operators use it as their registry, custody and settlement layer — under their own regulator, in their own currency.
Pan-African & global
Between markets, the same depository settles and collateralises securities across jurisdictions — cash clearing in local currency on central-bank rails, FX netted multilaterally rather than routed through correspondents.
Any asset that needs a record of ownership
The depository is asset-agnostic. It does not care whether the thing being recorded is an equity, a bond, a warehouse receipt, a tonne of refined metal or a regulated digital asset. If it needs an authoritative record of who owns what, held in segregated custody and moved only against payment, it can sit on this infrastructure.
That makes the CSD useful well beyond a securities exchange — to commodity venues, licensed digital-asset firms, government issuers and institutions that today reconcile ownership by hand.
Real-world assets
Tokenised or dematerialised claims on physical and financial assets, recorded with a registry that a regulator and an auditor both recognise.
Licensed digital assets
Regulated crypto and digital-asset firms that need segregated custody and a depository record for client holdings, separate from their own balance sheet.
Commodity exchanges
Warehouse receipts, delivery obligations and exchange positions held and settled against payment rather than reconciled by spreadsheet.
Metals & mining
Offtake interests, refinery receipts and metal-backed instruments registered with clear title and a movement history that survives audit.
Securities exchanges
Equities, bonds and structured instruments cleared and settled for a venue that would rather run its market than build a depository.
Government & institutions
Sovereign and sub-sovereign issuance, pension and institutional holdings, kept on infrastructure the issuing authority can supervise directly.
Settlement and collateral that cross borders
A security listed in one African market and bought from another has historically meant an offshore account, a correspondent chain and a settlement cycle measured in days. The depository removes that: the securities leg settles here while the cash leg clears in the investor's own currency between central banks.
The same mechanism lets securities held in one jurisdiction be pledged as collateral in another — a pan-African collateral pool rather than assets stranded behind borders.
- Investors pay and are paid in local currency
- FX netted multilaterally, not routed correspondent to correspondent
- Securities in one market pledgeable as collateral in another
- Available to regulated pan-African and multilateral institutions
Two legs, settled as one
Every trade has a securities leg and a cash leg. The depository and the cash rail bind them into a single atomic settlement — neither moves without the other. It works the same way whether the trade crosses a border or not.
ContiSX CSD
The depository holds the asset in custody, locks it for the trade, and delivers it to the buyer's sub-account the instant the cash leg is confirmed.
- Segregated custody & safekeeping
- Lock & match against confirmed cash
- Immediate, legal finality
Cash settlement
Domestically the cash clears on local rails. Across a border, the settlement system clears it in local currency, netting the FX and settling between central banks.
- Local-currency debit & credit
- Central-bank settlement
- Multilateral FX netting
Run your post-trade on our depository
Building a depository is years of work and a licence most operators do not want to hold. The technology and application layers are available as a service — an exchange, a commodity venue or a licensed digital-asset firm can run its registry, custody and settlement on ours instead of building its own.
Registry of record
The authoritative record of who owns what, with maker-checker control and an immutable movement history.
Segregated custody
Client assets held apart from the operator's own, under regulated custody and daily reconciliation.
Settlement against payment
Delivery and payment bound into one atomic movement — no principal risk on either side.
Corporate actions
Dividends, coupons, splits and elections captured, calculated and paid through to the holder.
API-first integration
The full depository surface over REST and WebSocket, so an operator automates rather than files instructions.
Regulatory reporting
Holdings, movements and reconciliation packs in the format the supervising authority expects.
Settlement-grade infrastructure
The guarantees that let an investor in Nairobi own a Lagos-listed bond with the same certainty as a domestic trade — and let a domestic operator hand its post-trade to someone else without losing control of it.
Atomic delivery-versus-payment
Securities and cash move together or not at all — eliminating principal and settlement risk.
Central-bank money
The cash leg settles between central banks — final and irrevocable, not commercial-bank IOUs.
Local-currency rails
Investors pay and are paid in their own currency. No offshore USD account, no correspondent chain.
Legal finality
Settlement is final and irrevocable on the depository — ownership transfers cleanly, with no reversals.
Multilateral netting
Flows are netted across the continent, collapsing gross FX and slashing settlement cost.
Custody & safekeeping
Securities are held in a segregated sub-account under regulated custody and segregation.
A trade, end to end
From order to final settlement — and the round-trip back on exit.
- 1Investor
Order placed
An investor buys a security listed on ContiSX, priced and held in local currency.
- 2Local bank
Cash leg
Funds are debited in the investor's local currency from their own bank account.
- 3Netting
FX routing
Where the trade crosses a border, the FX is netted and settled between central banks.
- 4ContiSX CSD
DvP lock
The CSD locks the security and matches it against the confirmed cash leg.
- 5Settled
Settlement
Securities credit to the investor's sub-account — final and irrevocable.
- 6Exit
Round-trip
On maturity, proceeds remit back to the same local bank account.
Hold it, settle it, or run your market on it.
Open a CSD account to hold and settle your own assets — or talk to us about running your exchange, venue or licensed operation on the depository.