Bingham J held that it was at the time of delivery to the branch. The result is particularly ironic since it seems to have been the custom in Australia to consider the Clearing House rules to be confidential. Netting arrangements do not necessarily all fall into the same legal category for the purposes of analysis. At other times a form of set-off or netting is provided for by bankruptcy legislation. There are in fact at least four different kinds of bilateral netting.
Money is due on a particular day from one party to another.
The obligations have arisen from several contracts. The parties agree that only the net amount of the debts should be paid by the party with the greater gross liability in full satisfaction of the original gross obligations payable by either party. Each organisation will either make or receive a single payment which represents its position at the end of a trading period. Although the payments and clearing system could operate on the basis of a series of bilateral netting agreements it does not in fact do so. The clearing rules call for payment to the agent to act as a discharge of all inter-party liabilities.