TriOptima UMR Compliance: Case Study

Hundreds of collateralized agreements managed across OTC, GMRA, Cleared OTC, ETD, and PB. New requirements for the exchange of initial margin as per uncleared margin rules (UMR) in phase 4. Collateral management process mostly outsourced to fund admin with some calls calculated in-house and sent via email. Dispute investigation and portfolio reconciliation performed manually via an in-house solution.

Given the impact of the initial margin requirements on an already fragmented collateral process, the company began to re-evaluate their entire collateral and reconciliation support model more than 2 years ahead of the UMR compliance deadline. New requirements to exchange two-way regulatory initial margin would not only dramatically increase the number of ISDA CSAs and calls needed to be managed but also create a new challenge associated with IM dispute management. The firm began exploring solutions to provide a higher degree of control and automation around the entire process, satisfying both existing variation margin and new initial margin needs.

The decision was made to centralize their collateral function and bring all tasks back in-house.  After a review of vendors, the decision was made to utilize both triResolve & triResolve Margin. Onboarding first to triResolve quickly provided automated portfolio reconciliation with transparency across all variation margin disputes. This eliminated the need to manually exchange data with counterparties via email and introduced a proactive exception-based reconciliation approach. Not only did this help to identify and resolve ongoing variation margin disputes, but it also provided a strong foundation for future IM dispute management by ensuring portfolios were aligned correctly. Resources and staff could then focus on the wider collateral process, including the introduction of new UMR requirements.

Centralizing the collateral process and implementing effective process controls across asset classes were top priorities for the firm. triResolve Margin offered a solution to manage all products in a single dashboard – supporting both existing variation margin requirements and upcoming initial margin requirements. This provided a fully automated workflow to manage the call lifecycle, ensuring direct connectivity to counterparties via Acadia’s electronic messaging service, Margin Manager™.

With minimal resources and UMR driving an increase in call volumes, high levels of automation were essential. triResolve Margin’s easy-to-use workflow, including multiple STP options as well as embedded connectivity to both triResolve and Acadia’s IM Exposure Manager™, ensured the TriOptima solution ticked all the required boxes.

By selecting a fully integrated, off-the-shelf solution, the firm was not required to perform  additional integration of multiple providers. This approach assisted with a smoother transition and allowed them to go live in weeks. Further, the low-cost TriOptima pricing model, combined with a consolidation of processes and STP, provided cost savings over the previous outsourcing model.

Find out more on how TriOptima can help you meet your initial margin obligations here, or contact us at info@trioptima.com.