Summary of key points and issues raised at the May 2007 Austraclear User Group Meeting
1. Opening
Mike Wolyncewicz opened the meeting and outlined the agenda.
2. ESAS/Austraclear Upgrade
Dave Stanesby introduced Graeme Beasley (Datacom’s Project Manager) and Rob Fitzpatrick (Datacom System Architect) to the attendees, advising that they will be available during the day to answer queries from members.
Dave then introduced Ian Perry from Deloitte who replaces Jim Black in the QA role due to Jim’s resignation. The 5th QA report covering the testing structure and management has been emailed to the industry. The 6th report will be prepared late July early August and will focus on the implementation readiness.
Dave said that Datacom’s focus is on clearing the remaining identified defects. They have also started work on the implementation and trialling has commenced. The RBNZ’s business acceptance testing is coming to a close. The RBNZ is working with members in the phase of on-deploying the application within their environments in readiness for IFT. Dave re emphasised the need for this to be completed so that all their people will have the new application installed on their individual desktops by the start of IFT during June.
Currently the RBNZ and Datacom are working on the visible issues of intermittent “server disconnects” and performance tuning. During deployment a few issues have arisen with Java versioning (our policy is n-1 and has been stated from the outset of the project), “lazy loading” (conflicts with some members security policies), “password” changes (new stronger passwords), local vs. system installation and thin client (Citrix). These issues are being addressed with the members on a one to one basis.
Dave stressed that the response time for the new system would be consistent with similar web based applications, therefore members would notice a difference.
Members were advised that there will be some pre-scripted test scenarios for corporate actions, CLS and tenders, but we suggest that members “buddy” up to conduct trading/transactional tests. We would also like members to test printing and downloading of files and reports.
Donna McDairmid and Kevin Jamieson will be running “Road-shows” during June to help familiarise members with the look and feel of the new system and talk about differences.
If we miss the “Go-Live” window of August/September with October for contingency, there will be issues with SWIFTNet Phase II late implementation penalties.
Ian Perry (QA) advised the attendees that everything that he has observed conforms to best practice and doesn’t have any major concerns with the progress or issues that have arisen to date.
3. SWIFT Update
Kevin Jamieson advised that HSBC Nominees is the first Austraclear member using the new Austraclear-SWIFT interface in live production. Their implementation has gone well and they are working with us to refine the messaging processing with Austraclear to reduce/eliminate the need to manually adjust/repair any trades received from clients. Another two members have tested access and will be ready to go live in the upgraded system. Currently we have contention with our test system and the SWIFT test enviroment due to all the changes for the ESAS-Austraclear upgrade industry testing, therefore we request that other members who have expressed interest hold off until after the refreshed Austraclear system is in production.
Kevin advised members who use MT950 messages that to accommodate Host-Host*lite reference numbers and to make the current messaging more flexible to handle new interfaces/switches, that there will be some changes made to those messages (statement line). These changes will be introduced on the new Test system during June/July with a likely promotion to production scheduled for the end of 2007 or early 2008. He also advised that for payments made using the new “ESAS-Direct” function that there is a new ESAS switch reference “DIRECT” included within the current MT950 message – which may need to be accommodated, depending on how members use the information they receive in the MT950.
4. Advisory Committee Proposal
Mike Wolyncewicz talked about the proposal for an “Advisory Committee”, which came from discussions with members requesting a greater input into the future of the system. This concept is consistent with international best practice recommendations. Openness and transparency builds trust and performance will improve as we are made accountable against pre-defined objectives.
RBNZ will retain the decision making rights, but members are assured their input is considered through this more formal consultation process. All major initiatives will be raised in this forum, which will convene 4 times a year. The RBNZ will improve the standard of reporting and produce an annual report for NZCSD. Members are very supportive of this concept, but had concerns as to who the industry representatives would be and what costs would be involved.
In summary Mike advised that from the feedback received to date we would call for industry nominations, publish an annual report in August 07, the first meeting would be held Aug/Sept 07.
5. Review of the last 6 months
Adrienne Barlow advised the group that the focus of the last 6 months has been familiarising the PaSS Team with the upgraded system in readiness for managing Help Desk support during IFT and the future.
Adrienne attended CSD 9 in Seoul. The theme of the conference was Harmonisation and Globalisation. Standardisation of corporate actions once again was a topic that was widely discussed. The ultimate is world wide standards for all jurisdictions, but country laws and tax regimes are a huge barrier. These same subjects were discussed at CSD 8 and I believe will be continued for a number of years yet. Surveys were another point of discussion, could they be standardised or even centralised, so that the information can be disseminated more easily. Standardising isn’t such and issue, but a central database would require administration and who would be responsible for maintaining and keeping the information current, also many of the current surveyors collate and on sell the data for a profit. BCP was discussed at length, particularly dependence on third party suppliers of services. We formalise plans as to what, how, when we will do our BCP tests, but do we fully understand what our suppliers’ plans are. The message was that we should all engage our suppliers more when formulating our plans, not an easy task but could prove extremely beneficial in a time of need.
The activity in cash and equities has remained quite static over the last 6 months, but there has been a gradual decline in fixed interest volumes largely due to the RBNZ liquidity regime implemented last year.
Fees – as advised in the past we will start recouping the cost of the upgrade from the go live date and will continue over a 4 year period.
Due to the work on the new system, changes to the current system have been kept to a minimum. The only change that has affected members is the implementation of the Austraclear-SWIFT interface and requirement for stronger passwords, the other changes have been tidy up of file structures. BUT watch this space, we have lots of exciting plans for future development.
6. Objectives and Plans for 2007/08
Mike Wolyncewicz advised the proposed plans for the forthcoming year included: establishment of the Advisory Committee and support of its review of issues of significance, bringing the upgraded system project to a close no later than October, work towards STP for lodges, uplifts and corporate actions and have the Austraclear system designated under the Reserve Bank Act. Operationally the objectives are to ensure system availability of at least 99.5% during core business hours, maintain the current profit margin around $800,000 pa, and to improve communication.
Due to the system upgrade Austraclear fees would increase by about 26% as advised in consultations during the feasibility phase of the refresh project. Members would be formally advised of the exact changes to the tariff shortly. Mike also provided a list of suggestions for futures system developments/enhancements.
Members were requested to provide feedback on the proposed objectives and plan by close of business on 1 June 2007.
7. Closing
Mike recapped on the highlights from the presentations at the meeting calling for questions, one suggestion came forward asking if we had thought of changing the name of the system. Mike replied we had not, but advised we would give this some thought and get back to members. He then closed the meeting.
