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Article 2 of that directive states: ‘For the purposes of this Directive: (a) “system” shall mean a formal arrangement: – between three or more participants, excluding the system operator of that system, a possible settlement agent, a possible central counterparty, a possible clearing house or a possible indirect participant, with common rules and standardised arrangements for the clearing, whether or not through a central counterparty, or execution of transfer orders between the participants, – governed by the law of a Member State chosen by the participants; the participants may, however, only choose the law of a Member State in which at least one of them has its head office, and – designated, without prejudice to other more stringent conditions of general application laid down by national law, as a system and notified to the Commission by the Member State whose law is applicable, after that Member State is satisfied as to the adequacy of the rules of the system. … (b) “institution” shall mean: – a credit institution as defined in Article 4(1) of [Directive 2006/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2006 relating to the taking up and pursuit of the business of credit institutions (OJ 2006, L 177, p. 1)] including the institutions listed in Article 2 of that Directive, – an investment firm as defined in Article 4(1)(1) of [Directive 2004/39/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 on markets in financial instruments, amending Council Directives 85/611/EEC and 93/6/EEC and Directive 2000/12/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Council Directive 93/22/EEC (OJ 2004, L 145, p. 1)] excluding the institutions set out in Article 2(1) thereof, – public authorities and publicly guaranteed undertakings, or – any undertaking whose head office is outside the [European Union] and whose functions correspond to those of the Community credit institutions or investment firms as defined in the first and second indent, which participates in a system and which is responsible for discharging the financial obligations arising from transfer orders within that system. … (c) “central counterparty” shall mean an entity which is interposed between the institutions in a system and which acts as the exclusive counterparty of these institutions with regard to their transfer orders; (d) “settlement agent” shall mean an entity providing to institutions and/or a central counterparty participating in systems, settlement accounts through which transfer orders within such systems are settled and, as the case may be, extending credit to those institutions and/or central counterparties for settlement purposes; (e) “clearing house” shall mean an entity responsible for the calculation of the net positions of institutions, a possible central counterparty and/or a possible settlement agent; (f) “participant” shall mean an institution, a central counterparty, a settlement agent, a clearing house or a system operator. According to the rules of the system, the same participant may act as a central counterparty, a settlement agent or a clearing house or carry out part or all of these tasks. A Member State may decide that, for the purposes of this Directive, an indirect participant may be considered a participant if that is justified on the grounds of systemic risk. Where an indirect participant is considered to be a participant on grounds of systemic risk, this does not limit the responsibility of the participant through which the indirect participant passes transfer orders to the system; (g) “indirect participant” shall mean an institution, a central counterparty, a settlement agent, a clearing house or a system operator with a contractual relationship with a participant in a system executing transfer orders which enables the indirect participant to pass transfer orders through the system, provided that the indirect participant is known to the system operator; … (i) “transfer order” shall mean: – any instruction by a participant to place at the disposal of a recipient an amount of money by means of a book entry on the accounts of a credit institution, a central bank, a central counterparty or a settlement agent, or any instruction which results in the assumption or discharge of a payment obligation as defined by the rules of the system, or – an instruction by a participant to transfer the title to, or interest in, a security or securities by means of a book entry on a register, or otherwise; … (p) “system operator” shall mean the entity or entities legally responsible for the operation of a system. A system operator may also act as a settlement agent, central counterparty or clearing house.’