Straigth Through Processing
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Straight Through Processing
Introduction
History
The Trading Process
Challenges
Settlement Solutions
Payment
Timetable for Implementation
My Thoughts
References
Straight Through Processing
Introduction
Straight Through Processing (STP) touches many facets in the Financial Markets. I will examine STP from a financial market point of view (namely the AMEX, specifically Equities trading) and also from a Firm’s position.
The Securities Industry Association (SIA) defines STP as “The process of seamlessly passing financial information to all parties involved in the transaction process, spanning the investment manger decision through to reconciliation and statement production, without manual handling or redundant processing in real-time” . When fully implemented, STP will provide operational efficiencies, regulatory compliance, lower costs, enable higher transaction volumes, reduced head-count, and improved customer service. Presently it is estimated that 42% of all trades are still conducted on a paper basis . All of this manual intervention increases costs, requires higher staffing levels, and opens the door for human error. STP will mitigate operational risk and improve performance and will become a necessary condition of doing business in a streamlined globally driven securities industry. This initiative is a formidable one because it represents a radical rethinking of the technology and processing infrastructure for all participants.
History
In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s the volume of transactions at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) was growing at a tremendous rate. The shear volume of paper that was generated each day and the physical effort that was required to execute, compare, and report the trades was slowly crushing the industry. In July of 1972, the Securities Industry Automation Corporation (SIAC) was created as a wholly owned subsidiary of the NYSE and AMEX. SIAC is the technology subsidiary of the NYSE and AMEX, with responsibility for the design, development, implementation and operation of the two exchanges’ computer systems and communications networks . SIAC operates clearance and settlement systems on behalf of the Depository Trust Clearing Corporations (DTCC) and Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) and also disseminates U.S. market data worldwide.
In the early days, member firms delivered magnetic tapes to the SIAC data center each night and SIAC compared the trades and sent data to the Clearing Corporations and back to the member firms. Reports were created and delivered to member firms and also to the floors of the two exchanges. This method required much physical movement of data (magnetic tapes and reports) both into SIAC and back to the firms. A great deal of coordination was required to harmonize the different firms’ inputs and outputs during each nights processes.
During the early to mid 1980’s data communications improved to the point were data could be transmitted electronically to and from the firms. Also, computer systems were developed that operated in a real-time environment allowing the firms’ back offices real-time access to the market information.
The communication between the different firms and SIAC used point-to-point circuitry with a variety of different access protocols. There was no single communication protocol in place, so SIAC was connected to the various firms using the preferred method of the individual firm (TCP/IP and SNA are examples of two communication protocols). Small firms used dial-up modems while larger firms had dedicated communication lines installed. These communication lines eliminated the need to physically move the data between the firm and SIAC.
SIAC recently undertook the development of the Secure Financial Transaction Infrastructure (SFTI). SFTI offers the financial industry a new way to connect to the trading, clearing, settlement, market data distribution and the other services that SIAC offers. Once connected to SFTI, firms have the ability to connect to other firms through SFTI, all of the exchanges (NYSE, AMEX, CBOE, NASDEQ, BOX, etc.), and all settlement and clearing systems at SIAC and DTCC . With this infrastructure in place communication from entry to settlement is seamless.