MEFF will introduce
a new version of its system for Members next October that will update
Clearing functions. This new version allows the management of Give-ups by
international standards, and also simplifies the
handling and use of existing functions. In addition to the standard sections of e.meff,
this issue provides a summary of the most important new features offered by
the new version, as well as information on training sessions for the new
environment, how the Big Bang changeover to the new system will take place,
the new Give-up contracts and details on the testing environment for Members
and ISVs. In the first seven months of 2005, the MEFF Board of Directors approved the
application of eleven Members to join the market:
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SUMMARY Version 6.0 to
be operative in October New Members of
MEFF Give-ups
management by international standards Separation of
Trading functions from Clearing functions Greater
flexibility in the configuration Greater
security Training
Sessions The Big Bang The Give-up
Contracts Testing Environment Training &
Education |
The Executing Broker will be able to request
a Give-out of any trade and from any account, including the Daily Account. The Member will be able to configure, from the MEFFGate or the MEFF Terminal, Give-up references and
their associated mnemonics to be used by the Executors to request the
Give-out. It will also be able to configure filters for the automatic
acceptance of Give-ins by the Clearing Broker and their Clearing Members. The
user will be able to maintain and modify the references and filters in
real-time. The state of the Give-up trades can be checked at any time to see if they have been
accepted, rejected or if they are still pending. At the time of accepting a Give-in, the
Clearing Broker will be able to assign it directly to a destination account
or to the Daily Account. In this version the
Trading and Clearing functionalities are separated in two different
environments, sharing the same PC. The trading environment will obtain the
information and prices from the open contracts to be traded.
It will also be able to manage orders and applications. The user interface
will be the same as the current version. The management of positions, exercises,
expirations and queries related to clearing data will be
done from the clearing function. For these functions
the user interface is new and will be given the name MEFFTop. All the trades coming
from the Trading function will be updated in the
Clearing function in real time and they will be available for any action to
be taken, be it assignment from the Daily account, transfer or Give-up. The new MEFFTop
Terminal has been designed so that it is very easy
for the user to handle. Great emphasis has been placed on the
flexibility of the Terminal configuration, so that each user will be able to
design and organise the screens in the way that will be most useful, saving
them to be used later, even as his/her main configuration. As MEFFTop is programmed in a Windows environment, it has a great variety
of features such as the ability to filter and sort information by different
categories, add or remove information, group by different fields and get
subtotals of these fields. The reports can be exported in various
formats (MS Excel, text file, …). As far as MEFFGate is concerned (with the API based on protocol
FIX), the necessary adjustments to support the new Give-up system have been
done. Members should be aware that the separation of the trading environment
from the clearing environment will also affect the
applications used by MEFFGate. All Members will have at least one user that
can administer the permissions for different actions that each trader can
take; thus it will be possible to identify who can
or cannot make assignments, transfers, accept Give-ins, manage mnemonics and
in the case of Clearing Members, who can or cannot view the data of their
Trading Members. The user who is authorised to administer
permissions can assign permissions both for users (permissions that the user
has) and for actions (which users have a specified
permission). Furthermore, he can also authorise other users to administer
permissions. The implementation of a new version of the
electronic clearing system involves an effort on behalf of the users in
adaptation and familiarisation with the new environment. As on previous
occasions, MEFF, mindful of this situation, has made all the necessary
resources available to its members to make the transition as smooth as
possible. During April and May sessions have been held
on version 6.0 for internal and external technical teams of the Members, with
a presentation of the differences between the current version and the new one
in relation to the transfer files of the MEFFTop
Terminal, MIBOS and the MEFFGate interface, and in
order to provide guidance on the impact that these changes may have on the
applications already developed. In a similar manner, MEFF has arranged
training sessions through the month of July aimed at market traders and back
office personnel. The main objective is to make users aware of
the changes and to ensure that the entire market is prepared on the day the
new version becomes operative. These sessions will continue in August and
September. On the same day that the new version becomes
operative, the new Give-up system will also begin to work, with the existing
Transitory Accounts being closed on this day and converting the current Global Give-up accounts into ordinary accounts.
Therefore, instead of a progressive change there will be a Big Bang
changeover to the new system. After the session ends on the day before the
Big Bang, MEFF will delete all the Transitory Accounts and, in their place,
it will create Give-up References: a Reference for each Transitory Account
deleted. Note that the procedures described below are only applicable to the
Big Bang and once this is completed the Members will
be able to change the Give-up references and the automatic filters that MEFF
configured to make the Big Bang transitions easier. |
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The following example is for an Executing
Broker with Member Code A835 that executes with the Transitory Account 017T2,
which currently flows into the Global Give-up Account G22RR of Member A822: In the Executing Broker MEFF will create: §
A Give-up Reference for each Transitory Account deleted. The coding for
the Reference will be “Executing Broker Member Code, Transitory Account
Code, Clearing Broker Member Code, Global Give-up Account Code” (The
Give-up Reference created will be “A835017T2A822G22RR”). §
A Give-in Member, which will be the Clearing Broker that the Transitory
Account flows into (The Give-in Member would be A822). §
A Mnemonic for each Give-up Reference created. The coding for the
Mnemonic will be the Transitory Account code (The Mnemonic created would be
“017T2”). In the Clearing Broker MEFF will create: §
A Give-up Reference with the same coding as explained for the Executing
Broker (It will have the same reference “A835017T2A822G22RR”). §
A Give-out Member that will be the Executing Broker of the Transitory
Account (In the example the Give-out Member would be A835). §
A Mnemonic for each Give-in Reference created. The coding for the
Mnemonic will be the Clearing Broker code and the Global Give-up Account code
(Therefore, its Mnemonic would be “A822G22RR”). §
An Assignment Account linked to this Reference and Give-out Member,
which will be the current Global Give-up Account, reconverted to an Ordinary
Account (It would be Account G22 RR). §
An Automatic Acceptance Filter. Therefore, all the Give-up requests done by
Member A835 with the Reference “A835017T2A822G22RR” will be accepted automatically, so long as the filter is
not modified. The purpose of this initial configuration is
to make the adaptation of all members to the new Give-up easier, so that the
Big Bang changeover goes as smoothly as possible. Afterwards the Members will be able to adapt
their Give-up configurations to the procedures that they choose to use. Circular 18/04 that regulates the new Give-up: (http://www.meff.com/ing/ficheros/give/Circular%2018-04%20-%20Give-up%20trades.pdf), cancels various clauses of the current
Give-up contracts. For this reason, some Members have contacted MEFF to find
out what needs to be done with the current Give-up
Contracts. Once the new Give-up system is implemented, MEFF will no longer ask Members to present
signed copies of the Give-up contract, except for supervisory purposes.
However, according to the current regulations, a contract between the Client
and the Clearing Broker must exist for the account opened at the Clearing
Broker (the former Global Give-up account).
With respect to the current contracts, MEFF
recommends that the contracts be rescinded on the
day Circular 18/04 of MEFF RV enters into effect, with new contracts being
signed. It is better to terminate the old contracts
as the procedure described in said contracts does not correspond exactly with
the new system and this may cause problems in the future. Therefore it is recommended that new contracts
be signed that correspond with the new process; a contract like the
“International Give-up Agreement” covers the new process
perfectly. From 4 July a
testing environment has been made available to all Members and the ISVs for the
new version 6.0. In this environment the users can
familiarise themselves with how the new version works before it becomes
operative in October. It is also possible to ensure that those computer
systems that interact with the MEFF system work correctly. This environment is available daily with the
following timetable: §
Trading platform: -
8:30. Start of order entry in auction mode. -
8:45. End of opening auction and switch to
live market. -
11:00-11:30. Suspension of trading in Mini
IBEX contracts. -
18:30. End of trading. -
19:15. Entry of closing prices and end of
session. §
Clearing platform: -
8:30. Start-up of Clearing House. -
13:30. Change of day for purpose of position
adjustments. -
19:30. Close of daily account, end of Give-up
transactions, end of position adjustments, end of exercise requests and start
of daily clearing calculations. -
19:45. End of session. (http://www.meff.com/ing/ficheros/give/Notice%2029-05%20-%20Simulation%20v6.0.pdf). |