RITS
Reserve Bank Information and Transfer System
RITS USER INTERFACE PROJECT: MEMBER INFORMATION PAPER No. 2
Welcome to the second RITS User Interface Project: Member Information Paper. This
edition updates you on project developments since the first Member Information
Paper issued in July 2004 and our correspondence with Members in December 2004.
In our December letter, the RBA wrote to all Members requesting their assistance in
“cleaning up” unused branches and users in RITS prior to the implementation of the
new interface. This process is nearly complete, and we thank Members for their
co-operation, especially where new company and/or personal logons were required.
In that letter, we also asked Members to provide us with business and technical
contacts for the project. This Member Information Paper has been sent (including via
email) to those contacts as well as banks’ normal RTGS operations and liquidity
contacts. We are following up with Members that have not yet provided user interface
project contacts.
The RITS User Interface Project: Technical Information Paper is also enclosed.
It provides details of the technical requirements necessary for users to successfully
access RITS using the new interface. It is directed at Members’ technical contacts,
and will be updated periodically as required.
CHANGED TIMETABLE AND MIGRATION STRATEGY
There has been a significant change to the project migration strategy and timetable
previously advised to Members. This change reflects work required to develop the
framework for digital certificates on tokens (described later) and a decision to allow a
flexible migration to the new RITS user interface, instead of a cut-over by all Members
at around the same time. Under the new approach, Members will be able to choose
an implementation window (for Phase 1 functionality) that is most convenient to them
in the light of other work priorities, including participant activity related to the SFE’s
Austraclear project.
The new user interface will still be delivered in two phases, with the main functions
covering most of the day-to-day operational tasks available first. Less frequently
used functions (including reporting and tender bidding) will be available in Phase 2,
and will continue to be accessed via the existing interface until Phase 2 migration.
Current planning is for Phase 1 functionality to be implemented by internal RBA users
of RITS in the fourth quarter of this year. A very small number of Members may be
asked to become “early adopters” and will commence their migration activities in Q4
2005. Migration for other Members is expected to be in the first half of 2006. There
will be no compulsory Member migration activity in 2005. A detailed timetable with
migration windows will be provided in the next Member Information Paper.
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RITS USER INTERFACE PROJECT: MEMBER INFORMATION PAPER No. 2
MIGRATION STEPS
There will be several stages in Member migration activity. Members will first install
some user software and perform basic connectivity testing to prove connectivity from
a PC at the Member’s site to a test page at the RBA. This will ensure that all of the
required software has been installed correctly on the PC and that they have
successfully connected through relevant firewalls and networks to the RBA.
The RITS Help Desk will then set up the Member on the Pre-production Environment
that will be used for user training and other familiarisation activities. Members will
receive information on the new functionality via user guides and training.
All users will need to be provided with security tokens and enrol for a digital certificate
(further details provided in the Enhanced Security for RITS section below) to be
generated on that token. This access credential, in addition to a RITS user id
(e.g. BANK2E01) and password, will be required in order to access the new
environments. Members’ Password Administrators will be enrolled first, to enable
them to facilitate the enrolment of other users of the Member and perform some user
administration activities, such as allocating the new roles to users. Users will then be
able to enter transactions into the Pre-production Environment and familiarise
themselves with the new screens.
When Members are ready, they will contact the RBA to arrange a date to cut-over to
the new interface for production activity. The certificates issued earlier will be valid
on both environments, but user roles will need to be allocated separately for
Production.
Any Member that wishes to participate as an early adopter should contact the RBA.
Refer to the back page of this document for contact details.
BUSINESS FOCUS GROUP LIAISON
The Bank met with the Business Focus Group in August 2004 to outline the project
and to discuss ideas and issues raised earlier by the Group. Four key screens were
presented to demonstrate the improvements in provision of information to users that
are possible in the new interface.
In November 2004, the Bank provided the Group with a project update and an
explanation of how the new menu for the selection of functions was being developed.
Discussions with representatives on the Group have been very valuable and we thank
them for their contribution. These discussions have assisted in the provision of many
of the new features and improvements outlined below.
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RITS USER INTERFACE PROJECT: MEMBER INFORMATION PAPER No. 2
KEY FEATURES OF THE NEW INTERFACE
As a general principle, the new interface screens have been designed to be more
intuitive, make the performance of tasks more efficient, and to provide better
information for users. In some cases, information from multiple “old” functions has
been consolidated in one screen, avoiding the need to switch back and forth between
functions. This and other main features described below are expected to provide
significant benefits to users.
•
A menu-driven structure enables users to quickly navigate to required functionality
without remembering often cryptic function names. The proposed menu is shown
later in this document.
•
An ESA Position screen consolidates all the information available within RITS that
influence a bank’s overall ESA position – i.e. the current ESA balance, ESA
Sub-Limit, active ESA balance, 9am batch amount, the number and value of
queued payments in and out, and RBA Repo activity undertaken during the day.
A Calculated Net ESA Position derived from the above information is also displayed
to assist banks’ liquidity managers.
•
This Calculated Net ESA Position is also displayed on the Queued Payments
Management ESA/Credit screen. This screen combines the functionality equivalent
to ESQM, CRQM, and the “enquiry only” versions ESQMQ and CRQMQ. (Note that
user privileges determine what functionality is available to each user and eliminate
the need for dedicated “enquiry versions” of functionality.)
•
Multiple status updates will be possible using the Queued Payments Management
ESA/Credit and Queued Payments Management Cash Account (previously QM)
screens. Previously only a single update could be submitted at a time.
•
Outward payments and negative amounts are displayed in red, and with negative
signs dependent on the context (see the sample Queued Payments screen).
•
Data displayed in lists can be downloaded directly to Excel.
•
Entry of counterparty and bank mnemonics is assisted by an auto-populate
feature.
•
Payments that must be settled before 5.15 p.m. can be filtered in the Queued
Payments screens.
•
In Phase 2, it is planned to add additional features. One such feature planned is to
provide information on banks’ SWIFT messages (SWIFT PDS and AIF). This
information is currently only available to the RBA, and will enable banks’ back
office staff to monitor their SWIFT message activity if it is not readily available
from their own systems.
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RITS USER INTERFACE PROJECT: MEMBER INFORMATION PAPER No. 2
SAMPLE SCREENS
Sample screens for the ESA Position monitor and Queued Payments Management –
ESA/Credit follow in order to demonstrate the look of the new interface and to show
some of the improvements it offers.
ESA Position monitor
As noted earlier, this screen draws together current information from RITS on the
factors that affect an ESA. It should be emphasised that this is not intended to
provide a complete picture of a bank’s position. It cannot, for example, take account
of transactions that have not yet been sent to RITS for settlement. Calculations are
also affected by any RBA Repos that “went overnight” the previous day – full
information on RBA Repos must still be obtained from the Austraclear System. With
these limitations in mind, this screen nevertheless provides a consolidated view of the
information available in RITS, to reduce the need for manual calculations drawn from
different screens.
The functionality to change the ESA Sub-Limit has also been incorporated in this
screen rather than being a separate function.
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RITS USER INTERFACE PROJECT: MEMBER INFORMATION PAPER No. 2
Queued Payments Management – ESA/Credit Status
This screen, and the corresponding screen for Cash Account management, offers
improved efficiency as it permits more than one update to be submitted in a single
action and consolidates multiple update and enquiry only functions. The multiple
update capability is in contrast to the existing functions that only allow the status of a
single payment to be updated at a time. Note that the Calculated Net ESA Position
and summary information is also included in this screen.
Other useful features that may be seen in this screen include:
•
The top right hand corner provides hyperlinks to any outstanding authorisations for
the Member and any messages of the existing MESSREAD type.
•
Messages from the RITS Help Desk that currently show at the bottom of RITS
screens are now in the header section of each screen (labelled “RITS Messages”).
•
A scroll bar at the right hand side allows users to quickly scroll though their
transactions. Users are also able to change the sort order by clicking on the up
and down arrows on some column headings.
•
The current session is underlined. Clicking on the current session will enable the
user to view a table of session times for the day (reflecting any session extensions)
together with explanatory material on transactions eligible for settlement in each
session.
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RITS USER INTERFACE PROJECT: MEMBER INFORMATION PAPER No. 2
RITS MENU STRUCTURE
The new RITS User Interface will have a permanently displayed menu of functions.
Users simply click on a function name to access that function. Compared to the
existing RITS interface – that relies on the use of specific mnemonics to select a
function - the new interface is more descriptive and intuitive.
The menu lists only those functions that have been allocated to each user, and can be
expanded and collapsed within the various headings at the discretion of the user. The
proposed menu is shown below in its collapsed form, a partially expanded form and its
fully expanded form. Note that only Phase 1 functionality is shown.
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RITS USER INTERFACE PROJECT: MEMBER INFORMATION PAPER No. 2
ENHANCED SECURITY FOR RITS
As advised in our letter in December 2004, the RBA has decided to introduce digital
certificates to enhance the security of RITS in line with emerging best practice
overseas and domestically. For the protection of RITS Members and the RBA, and
consistent with the critical importance of RITS to the financial system, the use of
digital certificates stored in hardware will provide an extremely strong level of user
authentication, transaction integrity and improved protection from repudiation.
Confidentiality of all information in transit between the RBA and RITS users will be
ensured through the use of SSL technology.
The use of digital certificates will entail issuing each user with a small,
portable security token (a Rainbow ikey 2032; pictured right) that will
be used to safely store their RITS digital certificate. To access RITS, the
user’s token must be inserted into a USB port on their PC, in addition to
entry of a RITS user id and password. Use of the token is protected by
the Token Codeword which must be entered at each login. It is
expected that Members will (at their option) be able to also store a
certificate for a user’s access to the replacement Austraclear System on
that user’s RITS token.
When a user submits an “update action”, the request to RITS will be digitally signed.
RITS will check the validity of the signature and certificate and verify user privileges
before processing the update action. Certain logs kept by the RBA will also be signed.
In the event of a dispute, it will be possible to establish, with a high degree of
certainty, the user credentials (user id and digital certificate) used to enter the
request on behalf of the Member. All update actions will be signed, including entry of
cash transfers and actions that could affect the settlement processing of a transaction,
including, for example, changing a payment’s ESA status, changing an ESA Sub-Limit
or allocating a role to a user.
Technical information on the use of tokens and possible implications for Members’
environments is provided in the RITS User Interface Project: Technical Information
Paper.
The RBA will provide Members with sufficient security tokens for their users, and some
spares for future users, storage at backup sites etc. It is expected that no charge will
be made for the initial allocation of tokens.
Certificates will be issued by a RITS Certificate Authority operated by the RBA.
Certificate enrolment and issuance is to be a highly secure process, with several
checks and balances designed to prevent issuance of unauthorised or invalid
certificates. Certificates will only be issued to named individuals authorised by RITS
Authorised Signatories. It will no longer be possible for generic logons such as
“user 1”, “authoriser1” or similar to be used.
Detailed information about the
certificate enrolment process will be provided to Members closer to the
commencement of certificate issuance for Pre-production Environment access.
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RITS USER INTERFACE PROJECT: MEMBER INFORMATION PAPER No. 2
TECHNICAL WORKING GROUP
The RBA has also had discussions with members of the Technical Working Group.
These members were provided with an earlier version of a technical information
paper. The current version of this document has been updated in light of their
comments and requests for clarification. It has also been updated to provide more
information as it has become available as the project progresses. The RITS User
Interface Project:
Technical Information Paper was issued with this Member
Information Paper.
CONNECTION TO RITS
As was announced in our December letter, the RBA has decided to provide access to
the new User Interface via the Internet instead of the dial-up connections that are
mainly used by small institutions. Dial-up access to the existing interface will
continue to be provided until all functionality is migrated to the new interface.
Members currently using leased lines will continue to use the Austraclear Network as
their primary access path. Use of the Internet will be subject to strict security
controls and its use as a primary means of connection for a Member will be subject to
Network Access Criteria determined jointly by the SFE and RBA. Our December letter
foreshadowed that this policy would be provided earlier this year. Release of this
policy has been delayed pending completion of joint testing by the RBA and SFE.
RBA CONTACTS
If you have any questions about any of the material in this Information Paper, please
contact:
Business questions
Alison Clark
Acting Senior Manager (Planning & Client Relations),
Payments Settlements
Telephone: (02) 9551-8942, Email: clarka@rba.gov.au
Nola McMillan Head of Payments Settlements
Telephone: (02) 9551-8901, Email: mcmillann@rba.gov.au
Bob Howe
Manager (New Projects), Payments Settlements
Telephone: (02) 9551-8921, Email: howeb@rba.gov.au
Technical questions
David Noble
Senior Manager (RTGS Systems), Payments Settlements
Telephone: (02) 9551 8981, Email: nobled@rba.gov.au.
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