Webinar Recording Available: Introduction to the ACTUS Algorithmic Methodology

Speakers:

Willi Brammertz, PhD
Chair, ACTUS Users Association
ACTUS Users Association

Jeff Braswell
Chair, ACTUS Financial Research Foundation (Liaison A to ISO/TC 68/SC 9)
ACTUS Financial Research Foundation

Host:

Jim Northey
Chair, ISO/TC 68 Financial Services
CTO, CalcGuard Technologies, Inc.

 

Summary:

The recent ISO/TC 68 webinar about ACTUS (Algorithmic Contract Types Unified Standards)introduced the fundamental concepts of the ACTUS Algorithmic Methodology that are being proposed as an ISO standard.

The webinar was hosted by Jim Northey, Chair, ISO/TC 68 Financial Services, whose introductory remarks underscored the need and importance of standards such as ACTUS that can provide the basis for more timely and more accurate analysis of the state of financial institutions and the financial system. 

In the opening presentation, Dr. Willi Brammertz, Chair of the ACTUS Users Association, and CEO of Ariadne Business Analytics, observed that the core activities in the financial industry involve products (financial contracts) comprised entirely of numerical quantities (the exchange and accumulation of cash flows). Because of this, the rules of those contracts can be expressed by mathematical functions and algorithms. Dr. Brammertz noted that previous attempts to improve the availability and efficiency of consolidated financial contract information for subsequent use in enterprise risk management via data warehouses failed because the financial algorithms of financial contracts were not included in the data(only) warehouse collections. He concluded by describing the numerous benefits that would be obtained by the adoption of ACTUS as a bedrock of financial contract information in areas that include transaction processing, finance, risk management and systemic regulation.

Jefferson Braswell, Chair of the ACTUS Financial Research Foundation, then presented an overview of the scope and nature of the ISO ACTUS Draft International Standard (DIS) on the ACTUS Algorithmic Methodology that is being proposed to ISO/TC 68/SC 9. At the heart of the ACTUS algorithmic definition of financial contracts is a set of mathematical functions, events and operators that provide the necessary fundamental elements (“primitives”) to model the behavior and forward-looking cash flows of financial contracts. Braswell then provided an overview of the sections in the ISO ACTUS DIS that define these algorithmic primitives, functions, event types and state variables that constitute the architecture of this standard. He concluded with the observation that using ACTUS to represent existing (and new) types of financial contracts and their legal cash flow obligations enables the consistent financial analysis that spans the broad range of financial products in use at financial institutions. Finally, a number of questions from the audience were presented and answered.