In the past, when you purchased a thousand shares of ABC Corp, you would be given a physical share certificate indicating your full name, identification number, home address and the number of shares owned in ABC Corp. Today, with the advancement of technology, shares are no longer represented in a physical certificate but transacted, transferred, and held electronically. In Singapore, the Central Depository (CDP) is responsible for clearing, settlement, and depository services for securities. The next time you receive your contract statement, take a close look at the cost breakdown and you’ll notice there are brokerage fees, clearing fees, SGX trading fees and government tax. The clearing fee is the fee you pay to the CDP for helping you to do all that backend administrative work. During one of the monthly Q&A webinars we organise for our subscribers, we received a question by ‘Casey’ about the equivalent version of the ......