Ledger

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Discussion

A Ledger is a record of entries documenting accounts, balances, obligations, transfers, settlements, or other value-related changes.

In a Financial System, a Ledger supports accounting, settlement, reconciliation, accountability, and review. A Ledger may appear in centralised, distributed, or replicated forms, depending on the implementation context.

The FX Demo Reference Architecture does not require a Ledger as the organising mechanism for governed work, compensation, settlement, audit, or provenance. Later implementation profiles may use ledger-based artefacts where they satisfy the applicable architectural requirements.

Definition

maintained record of entries that document accounts, balances, obligations, transfers, settlements, or other value-related changes

Source

Generalised from financial accounting, settlement, and ledger concepts; specialised for use in the FX Demo Reference Architecture.

Note

A Ledger is not necessarily a blockchain, distributed ledger, database table, journal, payment system, or settlement system. Those artefacts may implement, support, or contain ledger entries.

Example

An accounting ledger records settlement entries reflecting compensation owed for work performed under a governing contract by a Qualified Service Provider.