Payments Quiz – Basics 2

Not this one — Netting is clearing work: it calculates what the banks owe each other. Calculation moves no value. The obligation is discharged only when balances actually change on the settlement institution's books — a separate, later event.

Correct — Exactly. Clearing answers "who owes whom, and how much"; settlement answers "has the obligation been discharged". At 16:00 the first question is answered and the second is not — Bank Alfa still owes EUR 3,150,000.00 until the settlement entries post at Central Bank Omega.

Not this one — Netting is the system working, not failing. Riya's individual payment keeps its identity in the messages and in Nordbank's posting to Arjun; only the interbank funding is combined into one net amount. Deferred net settlement is a normal design, not an error.

Correct — Right. Bank Alfa can vouch only for its own books and its own outbound message. Whether Meridian Bank executed its leg, whether Nordbank received funds, and whether the supplier was credited are separate events, each needing its own evidence — which is exactly where an investigation starts.

Not this one — Value in a correspondent chain sits on some bank's books at every moment — it does not evaporate in transit. "Not arrived" usually means a leg is pending, queued, under repair, or credited with a detail mismatch. The task is to trace the legs, not to assume loss.

Not this one — That is a guess dressed as a conclusion. A rejection would normally produce a return or a status message back down the chain, and none has been cited. Absence of a credit is not evidence of a rejection — the delay could equally sit at Meridian Bank's leg.

Correct — Correct. The statement reports entries on Meridian Bank's ledger, where Bank Alfa's account is a liability Meridian owes. Bank Alfa's own mirror of that account is a separate record — and the daily job of comparing the two is precisely what reconciliation means.

Not this one — A statement describes the account as kept by the bank that holds it — here, Meridian Bank. Bank Alfa's internal mirror should agree with it, but the statement is evidence of Meridian's books, and any difference between the two is a reconciliation break to investigate.

Not this one — Correspondent banking exists precisely because not every bank settles across the central bank's books. Bank Alfa reaches USD through a commercial account at Meridian Bank; the entry Maya sees lives on Meridian's ledger, not the central bank's.