CSDs and Clearing Houses

Central Security Depositories (CSDs) and Clearing Houses (CHs) and have specific requirements known only to them. In spite of a great deal of consolidation in the industry, CDSs in particular are mostly national entities with national staff operating their own system.

This is where consultancy can help. Trading Technology's consultants have worked extensively with different national trading regimes, especially of those in the more mature markets of Europe and the United States. Trading Technology understands that while the technology supporting CSDs and CHs are not as challenging as the trading world, the functionality is much richer. It is thus important for any such entity to use consultants who understand the specific requirements of the CH or CSD in comparison with industry practise.

Example projects undertaken:

Requirements gathering

One of the greatest risks in any project is that of "definitional uncertainty". Many organisations find it difficult to write an objective set of requirements when entrenched in a particular set of business processes in combination with a legacy system. External consultants can help in two main ways; 1) Through knowledge of best practise 2) Through objectivity and being able to see "the wood from the trees". Trading Technology has written business requirements for many exchanges, and use a methodology which includes all of the participants of the CSD/CH, from the exchange through to the regulators, brokers and Central Bank.

Request for Proposal management

Trading Technology has run many request for proposal (RFP) projects for competitive tendering of new systems. A core part of the RFP process is to define the requirements and elicit proposals which are structured to enable direct comparison. Our methodology is based on that used within Government Funding agencies such as the World Bank, AIDB, EUFare and EBRD. It ensures openness to public scrutiny, fairness and transparency.

Project Management

General project management can be best performed by an external consultant who is not beholden to the politics and structure of an organisation. Trading Technology's consultants all come from the technology side of financial services and are well versed in project management methodologies such as Prince II.

Project auditing and reviewing

Trading Technology has a risk-based review process for examining the health of any CSD/CH project. No two projects are alike, and any aspect of a project may force it to fail, from technical problems through to communication issues, customer management and funding. Using a risk based approach ensures that the review is specific to the project being undertaken, is targeted and avoids large numbers of participants and paperwork.

Registry work