CASE STUDY: Enabling bank to achieve key regulatory compliance

CONTENTS

Summary │ Delivering for Client │ Client Implementation

Background

In 2010, after the 2008 market crash, US federal regulation implemented a requirement for reporting all Over the Counter (OTC) derivative trades. This was to be orchestrated by a central regulator. To remain in compliance and eligible to trade in the US, all financial institutions had to meet these requirements for automated reporting.

Our client, the Royal Bank of Scotland, had to build a new system to integrate with this new reporting entity to meet this requirement.

Summary

More than 1,000 business scenarios automated for testing
Bank-wide OTC trades now captured in a single integration system
Two days for continuous delivery to production

Delivering for the Client

The Solution

The client needed to build a system that aggregated trade reporting from multiple different existing trade capture systems, and rationalise these into a standardised report that conforms to the regulatory standards. Sandhata consolidated the different requirements from across business streams, and drew on its integration architectural expertise to deliver a holistic, future-proof solution that supports multiple interfaces.
As these were completely new systems, both externally and internally, one of the key challenges was to adapt and keep pace with the ever-changing compliance requirements.

Sandhata met this challenge in two ways:

Using an agile methodology that enabled continuous business feedback and very quick change
Automated testing that enabled one-click regression and allowed parallel changes to be made with confidence

The other big challenge was the intermittent availability of the third-party DTCC, which meant that external testing was not always possible. Due to the evolving requirements and constant change, the client needed to be able to test at all times. Sandhata used service virtualization to simulate the external reporting body DTCC and allow testing to continue uninterrupted.

The result

Sandhata’s testing best practice and established Agile MDLC process afforded frictionless change throughout the project. Sandhata’s integration pedigree and architectural governance expertise ensured the system delivered was to specification and future-proof to enable ongoing interoperability.

The system was delivered within the industry deadline and at budgeted cost, enabling the bank to retain its license to operate in the US and continue trading. Many banks had to quit trading OTC derivatives and were forced out of the US market due to not meeting the 2010 legislation.

The system was delivered within the industry deadline and at budgeted cost, enabling the bank to retain its license to operate in the US and continue trading.

The team

Sandhata’s integration experience allowed them to meet the multiple challenges of this project. The team ensured that the solution was well designed, delivered on time, to compliance specification and bug free. Sandhata’s team was consistently able to keep up with the changes, and bottlenecks were always in other teams. The Sandhata technology experts worked closely with the bank’s project team to ensure that the delivery adhered to the bank’s standards and best practices – while bringing their own experience-based insight and thought leadership.