Request For Information
For the provision and Implementation
Of a CSD system
Request For Information (RFI)
June, 2016

1

RFI Tunisie Clearing

Table of Contents

1 •Introduction

1•1Background

1•2Objectives and Strategies

1•3Purpose of this document

1•4Overview of Tunisie Clearing

2 •Specifications

2•1Business requirements

2•1•1Core System Components

2•1•2Other Components

2•1•3Data entry / Interfaces

2•1•4Miscellaneous

2•2Technical requirements

3 •Instructions

3•1Contact person

3•2Schedule

3•3Expression of interest

3•4Evaluation criteria

4 •Conditions governing the Expression of Interest

4•1Confidentiality

4•2General

1 •Introduction

1•1Background

Tunisie Clearing was established in 1994 during a significant reorganisation of the financial market which was undertaken at that time. In 1995, Tunisie Clearing acquired its Central Securities Depository (CSD) software (based on the French CSD system and referred to as SEMS: Stock Exchange Market System) as a donation from the French government. Since then, Tunisie Clearing has provided the necessary CSD services in Tunisia and is the sole entity in charge of securities clearing and settlement. Since 2005, software support was no longer provided from the original donor, leading to significant deficiencies arising within the existing CSD system.

As a result, Tunisie Clearing was required to internally develop many applications and fixes but these have largely been reactive in nature and the CSD system is now in need of a complete overhaul to reduce systemic risks that have emerged at the CSD level. In addition to addressing existing vulnerabilities and the lack of automation, the modernisation of the CSD in Tunisia will promote the evolution of the Tunisian capital markets and facilitate the introduction of new financial instruments and new investors.

1•2Objectives and Strategies

The objective of this RFIis to implement a new CSD system with the following considerations:

  • Fulfilment of the business functions already in place with the initial system and the applications developed by the Tunisie Clearing team,
  • Adoption of widely accepted standards and protocols as defined by CPSS/IOSCO
  • Low cost of ownership
  • High performance, flexibility and scalability
  • Consistent use of Straight-through processing (STP) standards

The work outlined in this initiative is fully aligned with the findings of the Joint International Financial Institutions Needs Assessment on Local Capital Market Development undertaken in Tunisia in 2012[1], which highlighted specifically the need to reform the clearing and settlement system operated by Tunisie Clearing. Both EBRD’s country strategy and LC2[2]’s strategy document for Tunisia also highlights and prioritises the need for improvements to the local capital market infrastructure in its draft/ existing strategy paper.

1•3Purpose of this document

In this regard, Tunisie Clearing is issuing a Request for Information (RFI) to request preliminary information from the prospective solution providers on the available CSD solution which could support the requirements outlined in this document.

It will enable the vendors to provide sufficient information for Tunisie Clearing to select a short list of solution providers to which a Request for Proposal (RFP) will be issued.

In addition, the RFI process will helpTunisie Clearing to specify the detailed requirements for the future system and prepare the project implementation schedule.

Solution providers do not need to prepare detailed proposals at this stage. Solution providers should provide basic information regarding capabilities and an indication as to how they would approach working with Tunisie Clearing to achieve this document’s goals.

1•4Overview of Tunisie Clearing

Tunisie Clearing’s capital is of TND 6.2 Million (Local currency) and is equally held by 30 institutions: 23 brokers and 7 banks.

Tunisie Clearing participants are: banks, brokers, issuers, primary dealers as well as the Tunisian Treasury and the Central Bank.

Tunisie Clearing main missions are:

  • Central custody of securities:

In 2015, 517 securities are admitted to Tunisie Clearing services for a total value of TND 30.7 Billions composed as follows:

59% listed securities;

34% Treasury bonds and government bonds;

7% corporate bonds.

  • Securities settlement:

Tunisie Clearing handles:

 DVP and corporate actions; The total amount settled in 2015 is of TND 9.9 billions composed as follows:

34% of on-exchange operations including 12% of adjustment operations between banks and brokers;

28% of operations on the primary market;

6% of operations on OTC market;

3% of repo operations;

29% of corporate actions operations.

FOP operations; These operations have a total value of TND 1 279 Billions of which 72% related to operations between the Central Bank of Tunisia and banks.

2 •Specifications

This section provides the functional and technical specificationsrequired for Tunisie Clearing future software solution.

In their expression of interest, vendors are expected to explain how their solution can supportthe requirements by choosing one of the following status:

  • OK when the software fulfils the requirement without any further development,
  • DEV when the software fulfils the requirement with an additional development,
  • NOK when the software doesn’t meet the requirement.

2•1Business requirements

2•1•1Core SystemComponents

# / Requirement / Status / Vendor’s Comments
1 / Describe shortly the Settlement system:
  • Does the system support DvP and FOP operations?
  • How is irrevocability implemented?
  • Which settlement models are implemented (DVP1, DVP2, DVP3)?
  • Can several settlement models be used according to the origin of the operations / market type?
  • What are the optimization algorithms used by the system?
  • Do you provide Auto collateralisation processes to manage in real time cash default transactions?

2 / Describe shortly theCentral custody system/securities accounting:
  • What type of securities does the system support in custody?Does your solution provides securities Securities account segregationaccording to international standards?
  • What are the securities accounting principles used by the system?
  • Does your solution provides Cash position segregation for payment banks and payment bank clients?
  • Does your solution provide cash position management (thresholds on payments ...)?
  • Does your solution allow to manage all type of securities (equities, bonds, treasury bills, Funds) on registered form?

3 / Does your solution provide OTC Reporting function for matching and settlement of OTC transactions including Funds transactions? If yes, provide a short description.
4 / Data management:
  • As Tunisie Clearing is the Tunisian National Numbering Agency, does your solution allows to process the codification of all financial instruments and entities according to the different international standards, including ISIN Code, FISN Code, CFI Code, LEI Code allocation?
  • Does your solution allow debt securities schedules management?

5 / Does your solution provide an orders adjustment/confirmation system dedicated to stock exchange transaction? If yes, provide a short description.
6 / Does your solution provide an IPO management system? If yes, provide a short description.
7 / Does your solution provide Corporate actions management system? If yes, provide a short description of areas including :
  • Announcement and reporting
  • Corporate action processing in line with international Standards
  • Corporate actions on flows processes

8 / Does your solution provide a reporting system, including data warehouse reporting and information dissemination platform? If yes, provide a short description.
9 / Does your solution provide an optional Registrar system including
  • Registration management of the holders
  • Accounting system for registered securities
  • Corporate action application for all registered securities
  • Reconciliation with securities accounting
  • Process for exchange of information regarding registered holders between market players

10 / Does your solution provide an Issuance management platform for issuers? If yes, provide a short description of areas including:
  • securities admission,
  • nominative data exchanges
  • corporate actions and general meetings services information
  • Reporting

11 / Does your solution provide securities lending/borrowing system? If yes, provide a short description.
12 / Does your solution provides a supervision and risk management system? If yes, provide a short description.
13 / Does your solution provides fees generating and invoice editing system? If yes, provide a short description.
14 / Does your solution provides a forecast management system (for cash and securities)? If yes, provide a short description.

2•1•2Other Components

# / Requirement / Status / Vendor’s Comments
Moreover could you mentionand detail whether your solution provides :
15 / Collateral management system
16 / Repo platform
17 / Trade repository/ depository
18 / Reconciliation system
19 / Does the system handle the lunar calendar?
20 / Can the system process DVP instructions from a CCP?

2•1•3Data entry / Interfaces

Vendors are expected to describe their standard interfaces, either automatic (e.g. SWIFT message) or manual (e.g. screen user interface) to input/retrieve data to/from the following institutions interacting with Tunisie Clearing.

  • Tunisia Treasury
  • Central Bank of Tunisia
  • CMF (Market Authority)
  • Tunis Stock Exchange
  • Banks
  • Brokers
  • Issuers
  • Asset managers

For each interface, vendors should provide the following information:

  • type of information to input/disseminate
  • format (or user interface) general description
  • batch/ real-time

Regarding the user interfaces, vendors are expected to provide materials, which best illustrate the ergonomics of the application:

  • screenshots
  • ability to support several languages
  • Search methods
  • help

Special attention has to be paid on banks and brokers’ interface. Tunisie Clearing is willing to envisage any solution that would facilitate the implementation of the new system within the members. As a consequence, vendors are invited to present any solution that would help. These solutions can be either workstations, centralised or individual back office management systems for brokers and banks.

# / Requirement / Status / Vendor’s Comments
21 / "Describe standard and supported connectors and formats
a. Swift supported? Describe supported messages
b. List accounting systems supported"
22 / Is the system able to directly interface with SWIFT or indirectly through the local infrastructure?
23 / Does the solution provide interfaces to integrate or produce streaming flows? If yes please detail principles?
24 / What connectors are included in the solution? (eg: ODBC/JDBC, files connectors, J2EE connectors – http, https, EJB, JMX,… - MQ connector, WebService, …)
25 / Does the solution support WebsServices to synchronise interfacing with other applications? If yes what WebServices languages and protocols are provided by the application?
26 / Does the solution embedded an ETL tool? If not does it provide an interface with one or several market tools? Which ones?

2•1•4Miscellaneous

# / Requirement / Status / Vendor’s Comments
27 / Does the system support Multicurrency?
28 / Is the system flexible and open enough to allow for easy implementation and interface of new services that may be subsequently required?
29 / Is the system able to process a high volume of transactions?
30 / Does the system include Electronic Documentation Management tools?
31 / Does the solution provide Monitoring and operating tools for Tunisie Clearing operations team

2•2Technical requirements

# / Requirement / Status / Vendor’s Comments
32 / Describe the solution’s technical architecture principles
- Is the system built in three logical layers: (1) Presentation, (2) Business Logic and (3) Data? Please describe and justify ?
The Data layer shall be independent from the Business Logic layer, and the Business Logic layer from the Data layer. The Presentation layer shall not communicate directly with the Data layer.
- Provide recommended detailed Technology Architecture
a.Technology Components and their relationships to information systems
b. Technology platforms and their decomposition, showing the combinations of technology required to realize a particular technology ‘‘stack’’
c. Expected processing load and distribution of load across technology components
- Does the system allow physical separation of layers? (in this case the network protocols that are used for inter-layer communication shall be specified) ?
33 / Software architecture:
- List of the main application modules of the solution
- Detail core application modules
- Detail the modules that can be separately integrated (optional modules)
34 / Detail on whish integration infrastructure is the solution relying to ensure connectivity between various application components (eg: MOM, EAI, ESB)
35 / List DBMS (incl version) supported by the solution and indicate the recommended DBMS
36 / List application servers (incl versions) supported by the solution and indicate the recommended application server
37 / List the third party software required to run the solution (incl versions)
38 / Application Virtualization:
- Does the solution support a virtualized platforms and solutions (eg. VMWare, …)?
39 / Are all functionalities of the solution accessible through a thin Client such as a Web browser? If not, indicate which functionalities / modules are not accessible through the Web.
40 / Does the solution provide a native BPM layer (Business Process Management)?
41 / Data Referentials:
- What are the internal referentials of the Software?
- Does the solution allow for an external Client referential (eg. Third party referential, securities referential…)?
- Presents the main principles for the data model (eg. Number of objects, number of tables, …)
- Does the solution provide data history? What mechanism are implemented at database level?
42 / Data Security:
What are the security mecanisms provided for the data ?
a. Actor access (people or systems)
b. Audit requirements, e.g. monitoring, change history, data history, versioning, archive, etc.
c. Data protection, e.g. data sharing, private data and data retention
d. Data encryption,
43 / Security and access control:
- Does the system rely on an external source of user and role information for authentication and authorization purposes (i.e. external directory server with the user and role information), where users and application roles will be provisioned?
- Describe users’ and administrators’ authentication into the application (eg:internal or external directories)
-Does the solution rely on a LDAP directories to manage user’s rights profiles? If yes detailthe LDAP tools supported (incl versions)?
-Does the solution integrate with SSO (Single Sign On) solutions?
- If the system needs additional authorization information (i.e. to build fine grained authorization not provided within http headers provided by the external trusted source), does it query an external directory service through LDAPv3 over SSLv3 (either with password or with certificate)?
44 / Performance and sizing
-What performance benchmarks or abacus can be provided for generic functionalities of the solution?
-What pre-requisites, technical configurations, minimum sizing are required to ensure performance?
-What are the solution to scale (multithreading, Load balancing)
- Does the solution provide load balancing mechanism for the various components of the application? If yes please detail?
45 / Audit trail:
- Describe detailed Logs and audit trail
a. What does the vendor offer in terms of audit trail? Which modules, activities, or specific operation, procedure, or event are supported?
b. Can log verbose configuration be changed from one environment to another, or from one process to another?
c. How can audit trails be extracted?
- Does the system log the sending and reception of:
a. external messages and acknowledgements (e.g. SWIFT messages)?
b. internal messages (e.g. alerts)?"
Does the system log the execution of all batch processes?
46 / Data Archiving
- Does the system offer a means to export data in a solution independent, structured, self described text/XML format?
47 / Description of the high availability mechanisms used under the proposed architecture
Description of how the proposed solution could be implemented while preserving data recovery/business continuity solutions
Strategy of the vendor vis-à-vis the Business Continuity Plan (BCP)? The Business Resumption Plan?
48 / Integrity:
The replication must be asynchronous between primary and secondary sites resulting of the distance. How do you guarantee the integrity and the consistency of the data between the differents parts of the application?
a. restart on the base of a cold backup
b. restart on the base of the data after a system failure (power outage for instance)
c. restart on the base of an asynchronous data replication (precise if restrictions)
49 / IT Continuity:
- Can the system run on multi nodes in order to eliminate single points of failure?
50 / Description of the dependence of the proposed solution to a particular network, operating system, database or specific hardware

3 •Instructions

3•1Contact person

Expressions of interest, questions and requestsfor further informationshould be addressed to:

Email:

3•2Schedule

Vendorsmay express their interest byMonday, August 1st, 2016, 1 pm, Tunis time, by email to the addresses listed above.

The vendors may submit their questions untilThursday, July 21st, 2016, 6 pm, Tunis time, to the email address above.

Following steps:

16/09/2016 / Issuing of the RFP
21/10/2016 / Submission of technical and financial offers
Mid December 2016 / Solution choice
December 2017 / End of implementation of the solution.

Kindly note that this calendar is an indicative schedule of the implementation steps.

3•3Expression of interest

Vendors are requested to express their interest to address the requirements as specified in the RFI.

The Expression of Interest must be submitted in accordance to the followingform:

  1. Table of Contents
  2. Global Overview of the company
  3. Presentation of systems and services
  4. Project Methodology of the vendor
  5. Reference Sites of vendors and clients
  6. Property and vendor relationship management
  7. Appendices

Expressions of Interest should be limitedto 50 pages. Additional reference material may be provided in the appendices.

Expressions of Interest may be submitted electronically in Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat format.

  1. Table of Contents
  1. Global Overview of the company

This section should contain the following information:

-Name and full address of the primary contact

-Information on the company. Brief history, initial year of operation, number of employees, sectors of activity, contacts, address of locations of activity, revenue and profit/loss (this year and last year)

# / Requirement / Status / Vendor’s Comments
51 / - Please list your company name, business address, headquarters location, …
- Describe your structure and stockholders.
- Please provide your company organization chart
52 / Revenue & profit
- Please provide the last 3 years revenues and profits
- Please provide the last 3 years R&D Investments
53 / Employees:
- Please indicate employees breakdown - by geographical location and by typology (sales,business consultant, technical consultant, R&D, help Desk, training, consultancy, quality management …)
54 / Development strategy:
- Please indicate whether the Company has experienced any significant structural changes in its organisational structure in the past five years (i.e. mergers and/or acquisitions). Moreover, please state if there are any plans of this nature for the next three years
55 / Customers information:
- Number and names of new customers in 2015, 2014 2013, 2012–North Africa, Europe and worldwide
  1. Presentation of systems and services

This section should provide: