Payments systems are typically characterized by some degree of tiering, with upstream firms (clearing agents) providing settlement accounts to downstream institutions that wish to clear and settle payments indirectly in these systems (indirect clearers). Clearing agents provide their indirect clearers with an essential input (clearing and settlement services), while also competing directly with...

The clearing procedure is a niching method inspired by the principle stated by J.H. Holland in 1975: the sharing of limited resources within subpopulations of individuals characterized by some similarities. But, instead of evenly sharing the available resources among the individuals of a subpopulation, the clearing procedure supplies these resources only to the best individuals of each subpopul...

Electricity markets face a substantial amount of uncertainty. While traditionally this uncertainty has been due to varying demand, with the integration of larger proportions of volatile renewable energy, added uncertainty from generation must also be faced. Conventional electricity market designs cope with uncertainty by running two markets: a market that is cleared ahead of time, followed by a...