Recommendation 1 Recommendation 2 Recommendation 3 Recommendation 4

Recommendation 5 Recommendation 6 Recommendation 7 Recommendation 8

Market selection

Recommendation 2

Securities Systems must allow the option of network access on an interactive basis. They should cope with peak capacity without any service degradation, and have sufficient standby capabilities to recover operations in a reasonably short period within each processing day.

1.	How often, over the last twelve months, has the depository been required to:
	Change its published settlement timetable?	Never.
	Extend the time of opening for settlement input by users?	There have been two occurrences of delays in the start of processing.
	Delay start of day processing?	There have been two occurrences of delays in the start of processing and extended time for settlement windows. The delays in the start of processing was due to: A data base error in the SAFIRES System. As a result, on the morning of settlement, the settlement run could not be processed on time. The problem was quickly rectified and the settlement commenced two hours after the scheduled time. However, all settlements for the day were completed before the end of day processing. The Central bank experienced a program fault on the morning of settlement. Settlement instructions sent from STRATE CSD to the Central bank were rejected due to a format error in the CENTRAL Bank's programs. STRATE manually adjusted the messages and resent each message to the Central Bank, upon which settlement was completed. The settlement windows and end of day processing were extended by an hour and all transactions settled before the end of day process.
2.	Does the depository operate real time or multiple batch processing for settlement?	The STRATE depository (SAFIRES) has the ability to perform both real time and batch processing settlements. Reservation of shares takes place on an online real-time basis, however cash settlement takes place via multiple batch processes at the Central Bank.
3.	Does the depository allow interactive communication (on line real time) with its users, enabling settlement input and amendment?	All communication between SAFIRES and its participants are on a real time basis. Both STRATE and its participants are users of the SWIFT network thereby facilitating on line real time communication. All STRATE users have developed their back office systems to cater for communication with STRATE. In addition, STRATE has provided all users with a SAFIRES front end (back up facility) that enables the user to transmit new transactions and amend messages. In addition, Broker/dealers communicate with SAFIRES via the JSE (JSE Securities Exchange South Africa) infrastructure, which serves as a SWIFT Bureau. Trades booked on the JET (Johannesburg Equity Trading) system by the Broker/dealers are fed through to SAFIRES in a batch process at end of trade day. Broker's net positions are received by SAFIRES at end of T+2. All allocations and reallocations are communicated to SAFIRES on a real time basis.
4.	Has the depository ever failed to recover an outage within the day or failed to start processing runs for a whole day; and, if so, when did that failure arise and what steps have been taken to prevent a similar event in the future?	No. Outages experienced since the inception of STRATE were always recovered within the day. The current day's processing was always met by end-of-day on the day the outage was experienced. In addition, STRATE has a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) that must be followed in the event of any outage.