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Features in Trade Processing & Settlement Systems
for Fund Operations
Platforms that manage the post-trade lifecycle, including confirmation, matching, clearing, and settlement of transactions across various asset classes and markets.
We ask vendors to mark their product against our feature list. It is not available for all products and in some cases we have derived data from publicly available sources. The list of features follows. Vendors can add a further 10 key features of their own.
Clearing
Features related to the netting, allocation, and management of obligations before the final settlement.
- Automated margin calls
- Generate and track margin call notifications based on clearing requirements.
- Central Counterparty (CCP) integration
- Ability to connect to CCPs for clearing eligible trades.
- Clearing member management
- Identify and administer relationships with different clearing members.
- Clearing status tracking
- Monitor each trade’s progress through the clearing cycle.
- Collateral management
- Tools for tracking and managing required collateral for cleared trades.
- Real-time clearing updates
- Receive immediate updates from CCPs on clearing status.
- Risk checks pre-clearing
- Run risk/capital requirement checks prior to clearing.
- Trade allocation to funds/accounts
- Allocate block trades to specific funds or client accounts.
- Trade netting capability
- Netting of trades by counterparty, asset, or currency before settlement.
- Unsupported asset tracking
- Flag trades/assets not eligible for central clearing.
Connectivity & Integration
Capabilities for integrating with upstream/downstream systems and external vendors.
- Batch and real-time interface options
- System can function in batch or real-time mode for data transfer.
- Cloud deployment options
- Support for deployment on public/private cloud environments.
- Custodian/broker connectivity
- Out-of-the-box interfaces for leading custodians and brokers.
- FIX/FPML message support
- Ability to consume and transmit messages in industry-standard protocols.
- File import/export support
- Support for standardized and custom file formats for data exchange.
- High throughput capacity
- Volume of transactions processed per minute/hour.
- Market data feed integration
- Connectivity for real-time or EOD reference and market pricing data.
- Message transformation/mapping tools
- Customizable adapters to transform data between formats.
- OMS/PMS integration
- Connects directly to Order Management and Portfolio Management Systems.
- Open APIs
- Availability of secure APIs for two-way connectivity with external systems.
Corporate Actions Processing
Automated handling of voluntary and mandatory corporate actions impacting settled trades.
- Ad hoc report generation
- Ability to generate reports on corporate actions, entitlements, and positions.
- Automated entitlement calculation
- System calculates entitlements (cash/shares) for each account/fund.
- Corporate actions feed integration
- Direct connections to data providers for corporate actions data.
- Custodian liaison tools
- Facilitates communication of election instructions to custodians.
- Event type coverage
- Supported corporate action event types (dividend, splits, mergers, etc.).
- Exception tracking
- Automatically detects and flags exceptions in event processing.
- Historical event tracking
- Maintains a log of past corporate actions and results.
- Instruction capture for voluntary events
- Enables capture and processing of user elections for voluntary events.
- Multi-account allocation
- Allocates entitlements accurately across multiple accounts/funds.
- Notification workflows
- Automatically notifies users and clients of impending actions.
Performance & Scalability
Ensures the platform operates efficiently under peak loads and scales with business volumes.
- Auto-scaling
- System can increase resources automatically to accommodate higher loads.
- Concurrent user support
- Maximum number of users supported in parallel.
- Disaster recovery (RTO/RPO)
- System's recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO).
- Environment isolation
- Supports separation of production, test, and development environments.
- High availability
- Redundancy for 24/7 uptime and minimal service interruptions.
- Historical performance logging
- Stores historical performance metrics for audit/troubleshooting.
- Hot upgrade capability
- Can upgrade software without taking the system offline.
- Latency
- Average end-to-end processing time of single trade.
- Monitoring/alerting for bottlenecks
- Real-time monitoring and alerts when exceeding resource thresholds.
- Peak throughput
- Maximum number of transactions processed per second.
Reconciliation
Ensuring positions, cash, and trades are consistent internally and with external records.
- Audit logging
- Detailed logging of all reconciliation and exception resolution activities.
- Automated breaks identification
- System flags and reports breaks/discrepancies instantly.
- Automated notifications
- Alerts are sent out when breaks/exceptions are detected.
- Cash reconciliation
- Automated matching of expected vs. actual cash movements.
- Data normalization tools
- Standardizes data from multiple sources/formats to enable matching.
- Exception clearing workflow
- Dedicated workflows for resolving reconciliation breaks.
- Multi-frequency support
- Can perform reconciliations intra-day, daily, weekly, or custom frequency.
- Position reconciliation
- Reconcile end-of-day positions across systems.
- Reconciliation throughput
- Volume of trades/cash/items reconciled per hour.
- Trade-to-custodian reconciliation
- Compare internal trades with those reported by the custodian.
Regulatory & Compliance Support
Facilitates adherence to financial regulations and supports audit requirements.
- Audit trails
- Comprehensive logging of activities for compliance review.
- Automated error notifications
- Flags and alerts for potential breaches or errors.
- Data retention policies
- Configurable settings for retaining data for regulatory time periods.
- Exception-based reporting
- Supports generating compliance reports based on trade exceptions.
- Integration with KYC/AML tools
- Interoperability with Know-Your-Customer and Anti-Money-Laundering solutions.
- Regulatory reporting modules
- Built-in modules for regulatory reports (e.g. MiFID II, EMIR, SFTR, Dodd-Frank).
- Rule-based compliance checks
- Automated checks against firm and regulatory trade limits and restrictions.
- Scheduled regulatory reporting
- System can schedule and send regulatory reports automatically.
- Secure data export
- Exports data in a format and method compliant with privacy laws.
- User access controls
- Granular security roles and permissioning for users.
Security
Ensures robust protection of sensitive trade, client, and market data.
- Automated session timeout
- Users are logged out automatically after a period of inactivity.
- End-to-end data encryption
- Encrypts data both at rest and in transit.
- Granular access control
- Permissions assigned at user, group, or function level.
- Incident response protocols
- Predefined workflows for suspected or actual breaches.
- Intrusion detection/prevention integration
- System interfaces with existing IDP/IDS solutions.
- Multi-factor authentication
- Requires more than one method of authentication for login.
- Patch management
- Regular updates to address new vulnerabilities.
- Regular security audits
- System is subject to periodic internal/external security reviews.
- Role-based data masking
- Sensitive fields are masked based on user permissions.
- User activity monitoring
- Real-time logging and analysis of user activity.
Settlement
Processes for the transfer of securities and cash to fulfill trade obligations.
- Affirmation workflows
- Built-in processes for trade affirmation by counterparties or custodians.
- Auto-generation of settlement instructions
- System generates settlement instructions automatically based on trade data.
- Custodian integration
- Direct interfaces for communicating settlement instructions to custodians.
- DVP/RVP support
- Supports Delivery vs. Payment and Receipt vs. Payment settlement types.
- Multi-market settlement
- Settlement processing across various geographies and market infrastructures.
- Partial settlements support
- Ability to process partial settlements when full allocation/cash is not available.
- Settlement cycle configuration
- Ability to set T+2, T+1, T+0, or custom settlement periods.
- Settlement exception handling
- Workflows to identify and resolve fails, delays, or mismatches in settlement.
- Settlement fails reporting
- Monitoring and reporting of failed/delayed settlements.
- Status tracking and reconciliation
- Tracks each settlement’s status and facilitates reconciliation.
Trade Capture
Functionality enabling real-time and accurate recording of trade details immediately after execution.
- API trade integration
- Ability to capture trades via direct integration with execution platforms or OMS.
- Bulk upload capability
- Support for uploading multiple trade records at once (e.g., via CSV/XML).
- Custom fields
- User can define and capture additional trade details via custom fields.
- Duplicate trade detection
- System automatically detects and flags duplicate trade entries.
- Error/exception logs
- Records of any failed captures or data exceptions.
- Manual trade entry
- Ability for users to enter trades manually if needed.
- Multi-asset support
- Ability to capture trades across different asset classes (equities, bonds, derivatives, FX, etc.).
- Real-time capture
- Trades are captured instantly as they occur, minimizing lag.
- Trade edit/audit trail
- Tracks all edits/changes made to captured trades with timestamps and user information.
- Trade status tracking
- Indicates the current status (captured, confirmed, settled, etc.) for each trade.
Trade Confirmation & Matching
Processes for confirming trade details with counterparties and matching them before settlement.
- Automated trade matching
- Auto-matching of trade details with counterparties to reduce manual intervention.
- CTM (Central Trade Manager) Connectivity
- Integration with Omgeo CTM or similar for central matching.
- Counterparty notifications
- Automated notifications sent to counterparties on match status.
- Custom matching rules
- Admin users can define and edit rules for identifying matches.
- Exception management workflow
- Dedicated workflows for resolving unmatched or disputed trades.
- Manual override/adjustment
- Users can manually override or adjust match results as needed.
- Matching latency
- Average time taken to complete trade matching.
- Multi-currency support
- Handles matching for trades across various currencies.
- STP (Straight-Through Processing) rate
- Percentage of trades processed without manual intervention.
- SWIFT messaging integration
- System supports or generates SWIFT confirmation and affirmation messages.
User Experience & Reporting
Facilitates ease of use, error reduction, and the ability to extract actionable insights.
- Ad hoc reporting
- Users can build and generate custom reports on demand.
- Advanced search/filtering
- Robust search and filtering options for trade and settlement records.
- Customizable dashboards
- Users can configure dashboards to monitor relevant KPIs and statuses.
- Drill-down analytics
- Allows navigation from summary to detailed trade information.
- Export to standard formats
- Can output data/reports to CSV, Excel, PDF, etc.
- Mobile/web accessibility
- Platform can be accessed from web browsers or mobile devices.
- Multi-language support
- User interface available in multiple languages.
- Real-time notifications and alerts
- Prompts users immediately about errors, matches, exceptions, or deadlines.
- Role-based UI customization
- User interface adapts and shows relevant modules based on role.
- Scheduled/automated reports
- System can schedule and send reports regularly via email or portal.