Helva's underlying entity
Helva’s underlying entity is the Swiss company that performs the roles that have to sit with an accountable counterparty under strong law. In these docs we usually just say Helva. This page is the exception, because the on-chain beneficiary and the fiat clearing account sit with that entity.
Three roles
Section titled “Three roles”| Role | What it means |
|---|---|
| Broker | Matches borrowers and lenders; issues the contracts |
| Payment-clearing agent | Receives the lender’s fiat and forwards it to the borrower; handles repayment in the other direction |
| Guarantor | Provides the lender guarantee, backed by a first-loss reserve plus its balance sheet (bounded) |
Why the beneficiary is operated by Helva
Section titled “Why the beneficiary is operated by Helva”The Letter of Credit’s beneficiary is a contract operated by Helva. The lender is not that beneficiary. This is deliberate:
- If the lender were the beneficiary, they could trigger conversion of your collateral at will.
- With Helva’s contract as beneficiary, conversions happen only under the conditions in the contracts. Redemptions can only go to Helva’s Safe, enforced by the contract.
flowchart LR
B[Borrower vault] -->|LoC names| S[Helva's beneficiary contract]
S -->|redeems only to| R[Helva's Safe]
R -->|held for| L[Lender]
Custody — held for the lender
Section titled “Custody — held for the lender”When collateral is converted, the resulting credit asset is redeemed to Helva’s Safe, enforced by the contract. Legally, those assets are the lender’s, held for the lender by Helva. They do not enter Helva’s balance sheet as Helva’s own property. Helva converts them to the financing currency and remits to the lender.