Propose Clearing Accounts in Atlantis

Background/Issue

One of the Agreement Match criteria for Atlantis to correctly calculate a brokerage fee is that the Clearing Account on the trade should match a Clearing Account on an existing Docs give-up agreement. If the Clearing Account on a trade is not listed on any of the Docs give-up agreements between the parties to the trade, then an agreement will not match to the trade and the brokerage fee will not be calculated for the trade. The Fee Calc Failure Reason on the trade will be “No Agreement Found” and the Cannot Settle Reason on the trade will be “Fee Amount Missing”. 

Trades with these designations often stagnate in Atlantis for several cycles. With settlement stalled until the Docs Agreement can be updated, large backlogs of unpriced trades can form.

Solution

Participants, both Receiver and Payer, can Associate Clearing Accounts for trades that have not matched to a Docs give-up agreement due to missing Clearing Accounts on the agreement. The Propose Clearing Account feature allows users to Associate provisional Clearing Accounts to a Docs agreement, enabling fee calculation.

How To

Propose Clearing Account can be found under the Actions Menu on the Summary screen of Atlantis.

Users can follow the below steps to Propose Clearing Accounts on a given set of trades:

1. Select trades on the Summary screen that do not have an agreement matched due to missing Clearing Account on agreement
2. If the trades already contain a Clearing Account and Agreement ID, the information will automatically populate in the fields under Propose Clearing Account menu. If user agrees with the details, they can hit “Associate” to link the Clearing Account to the Docs Agreement for Atlantis matching purposes only.
3. A user can also manually update the Clearing Account, Agreement ID, provide comments for context, and then click “Associate”. See screenshot below.

Note: Trades that match due to Associated Clearing Accounts can be Affirmed and Approved, but they cannot settle until the accounts are added to the applicable agreements

Once the trades have been actioned and the ‘Reviewer’ state is Complete, trades with Associated Clearing Accounts will have the Cannot Settle Reason, “Pending clearing account addition to agreement by Payer”.  For trades to fully settle, the Clearing Broker must add the Clearing Account to the given Docs Agreement. Once the Clearing Account is added to the agreement and the agreement is executed, the trades will settle in the next eligible settlement cycle.

Workflow

Associating a Clearing Account to a Docs Agreement serves three purposes:

1. Matches Atlantis trade to Docs Agreement – Once a Clearing Account is associated to a Docs Agreement, the trade will match to the given agreement and calculate fees according to the rate schedule of that agreement
2. Allows Atlantis trade to be Actioned – With the calculated fee on the trade, Receivers and Payers can now action the trades (affirm, hold, approve, reject) to push it through the settlement workflow
3. Assist in Remediation of Docs Agreements – Participants can view all trades impacted by Pending Clearing Account Additions in the “Pending Acct Addition” Preset View in Atlantis. This information can be downloaded and shared with the applicable Docs teams to help identify which Docs Agreements need attention

Disassociating Clearing Accounts in Atlantis

Background/Issue

If a Clearing Account was Associated to a Docs give-up agreement incorrectly or the Clearing Account cannot/will not be added to the agreement, the trades will continue to have Cannot Settle Reason “Pending Clearing Account addition to agreement by Payer”. To resolve and move trades towards settlement, the Clearing Accounts need to be Disassociated.

Solution

If Clearing Accounts were incorrectly Associated to the wrong agreement, the Receiver or Payer will need to Disassociate the Clearing Accounts from the applicable Agreement ID in Atlantis. This removes the Cannot Settle Reason “Pending Clearing Account addition to agreement by Payer” from trades if the agreements cannot be amended to include the Proposed Clearing Accounts. 

How To

Clearing accounts can be Disassociated from the trades using the Propose Clearing Accounts tab. Propose Clearing Accounts can be found under the Actions Menu on the Summary screen of Atlantis.

Users can follow the below steps to Disassociate Clearing Account on a given set of trades:

1. Select trades on the Trade Summary screen where the Clearing Account has been associated with a Docs give-up agreement.
2. Since the trades already contain a Clearing Account and Agreement ID, the information will automatically populate in the fields under Propose Clearing Account menu. If user agrees with the details, they can hit “Disassociate” to unlink the Clearing Account from the Docs Agreement.
3. A user can provide comments for context, then click “Disassociate”. See screenshot below.

Once the Clearing Account has been Disassociated from the given Docs give-up agreement, Atlantis will do the following:

1. Reverse all trade actions and move the trades back to Receiver queue
2. Recalculate the fees on the trades (if applicable)
3. Trades will then need to be actioned by Participants to push them through the settlement workflow