Market infrastructure - Croatia
Institutions and organisation
Stock Exchanges and related institutions
- Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) (www.zse.hr)
Trading hours:
09:00 - 16:30.
Settlement cycle:
T+2 business days.
Trading methods:
Continuous, order-driven trading with automated matching of orders.
Foundation:
July 1991
Ownership structure:
Managed by General Meeting of shareholders and Supervisory Board; owned by 50 shareholders (banks, brokerage houses,insurance and industrial companies).
Participants:
37 banks and brokerage companies.
CSD - Central Depository & Clearing Company Inc. (CDCC) (http://www.skdd.hr)
The CDCC (Central Depository & Clearing Company Inc.) was founded on 18 April 1997, pursuant to Article 84 of the Act on Issuing and Trading Securities (Official Gazette 107/95) and Article 177 of the Companies Act (Official Gazette 111/93), as a joint stock company called Central Depository Agency Inc. The name was changed into Central Depository & Clearing Company Inc. on 13 March 2009.
The Securities Market Act replaced the Act on Issuing and Trading Securities and was valid from 25 July 2002 until 31 December 2008.
Capital Market Act came into force on 1 January 2009. Pursuant to Article 593 of that Act, the Central Depository & Clearing Company Inc., which had the permit to carry out the activities of depositing dematerialized securities and clearing and settling legal affairs performed with such securities pursuant to the Act on Issuing and Trading Securities, continued to do business as central clearing and depository company, pursuant to the provisions of this Act, allowed to perform activities from Article 506 paragraph 1 Items 1, 2 and 3 of this Act with securities and treasury bills (issued by the Ministry of Finance or the Croatian National Bank) and commercial papers. Paragraph 2 of the same Article states that the system of clearing and settlement of legal affairs performed with dematerialized securities managed by the Central Depository & Clearing Company continued to function as a system of clearing and settling securities from Article 501 of this Act.
Last capital Market Act came into force in 2018 (Official Gazette 65/18)
This Act was additionally supplemented in 2020 by Law on Amendments to the Capital Market (Official Gazette 17/20) and in 2021 by Act on Amendments to the capital Market Act (Official Gazette 83/2021)
The holders of regular shares of CDCC are:
Holder | Percentage (%) | Amount |
Financial Agency (FINA) | 56.62 | 56,338 |
The Republic of Croatia | 39.15 | 38,958 |
Capital market participants (banks, brokerage houses, issuers, organized markets) | 4.23 | 4,204 |
Total | 100.00 | 99,500 |
The CDCC performs the following functions:
- Acts as CSD for Croatian fungible securities.
- Acts as settlement agency for the ZSE, providing clearing, settlement and custody services relating to exchange trades based on instructions received from appropriate trading institutions.
- Acts as National Numbering Agency, allocating ISIN codes for securities issued in Croatia.
Central Bank - The Croatian National Bank (http://www.hnb.hr/)
The Croatian National Bank maintains the accounts of banks and those of the Republic of Croatia and executes payments across these accounts.
The Croatian National Bank uses the following interbank payment systems:
- Croatian Large Value Payments System (CLVPS - Croatian HSVP) for the execution of interbank payment systems and settlement in real time and on a gross basis;
- National Clearing System (NCS - Croatian NKS) for the execution of low-value or mass payments and settlement on a net multilateral basis.
Regulatory structure
Regulations
The regulation and supervision of the Croatian banking system is governed by a number of Acts, including the following:
- The Capital Market Act, regulating the capital market and the Croatian National Securities Commission (CROSEC);
- Investment Funds Law, (Law on Open-End Investment Funds with Public Offering and Law on Alternative Investment Funds) regulating the establishment and operation of investment funds and investment management companies;
- Company Law, regulating the activities of trading companies;
- Banking Law, regulating the establishment of banks and banking activities;
- Takeover Law, regulating takeover procedures;
- Foreign Exchange Law, regulating payment operations and the foreign exchange system.
Regulatory authorities
- The Croatian Securities Commission (CROSEC) is responsible for regulation and supervision of the securities markets and the SDA.
- The Croatian National Bank regulates and supervises foreign exchange, monetary policy and banking activities.
- The Ministry of Finance is responsible for the regulations of the foreign exchange system, the issuance of Croatian Ministry of Finance T-Bills and government bonds and Tax administration.