Third Party

"A third party is an entity that is involved in some way in an interaction that is primarily between two other entities. The third party may or may not be officially a part of the transaction between the two primary entities and may or may not be interacting transparently and/or legally. A third party is a party that is involved in, say, a contract or a trade, but is not the main party. A broker to a trade between two counterparties is a third party. In a securities transaction, a law firm, a stock exchange, custody agent, central securities depository, clearing house, calculation agent, paying agent, trustee, a broker-deal etc could be considered third parties that make transactions happen but which are not the principal parties: the issuer and the investor"