Reconciliation

eCM - electronic Confirmation Matching

Connecting to eCM is a key priority for any trading or brokerage firm wishing to enter the European energy market. eCM uses our award-winning CMS infrastructure, which provides automated confirmation matching for Europe’s OTC internal energy market. It is currently used by over 150 trading and brokerage companies across the European wholesale energy market.

Who is it for?

  • The wholesale trading back offices.
  • OTC trading venues (e.g. OTFs and other platforms that arrange OTC trades electronically).
  • Companies wishing to automate confirmation of intra-company transactions.

Benefits:

For the wholesale trading back office:

  • Mitigate your operational risks by accurately and speedily reconciling each trade with your counterparty and/or broker.
  • Join an on-line confirmation matching community with over 150 trading organisations and brokers.
  • Avoid human error in confirmation.
  • Ensure that confirmation scales seamlessly with your transaction volumes.
  • As a large-volume user, you benefit from a monthly fee cap; as a small-volume user, you benefit from free access to up to 250 confirmations per month, using our manual eCM lite service.

For OTC trading venues:

  • Provide your back office with the reconciliation required by your clients.
  • Benefit from a capped fee scheme that scales up with volume as your business grows.
  • Confirm brokerage fees on a per-trade basis, thus speeding up invoice settlement.

Features:

eCM provides immediate on-line back-office reconciliation to most wholesale energy market participants and organised marketplaces where European energy is traded.

The context:

Confirmation matching is a crucial mechanism for operational risk mitigation in OTC markets. It is a legal requirement that is stipulated in master trading agreements under which OTC trades are transacted. Manual confirmation matching, which can create a huge operational overhead, is increasingly ineffectual for risk mitigation as transaction volumes grow. This is why all successful OTC markets adopt automation of the confirmation process at an early stage in their development.

eCM is implemented by the European Federation of Energy Traders (EFET). To review the eCM Standard process specification, click here.

Frequently asked questions:

eCM implements standardised business processes compliant with the EFET eCM Standard that automates the exchange and processing of data between traders and brokers. The EFET eCM standard is available here

Yes, eCM facilitates confirmation matching bilaterally, either between two counterparties or between a trader and a broker; and trilaterally between two trading organisations and a broker.
Processing for each scenario is described in the EFET eCM Standard

The EFET eCM Standard provides a list of products which can be confirmed in eCM. The eCM service also provides a detailed break down of all permitted products allowing users to define which products they want to include in electronic confirmation matching on the live service.

Organisations signing up with Equias and connecting to eCM must complete the Equias Accession Agreement or the Abridged Addendum to add eCM to their portfolio of Equias services, if they already have an Accession Agreement in place. Equias also provides clients with a standard Data Processing Agreement (DPA) which should also be executed in conjunction with the other contractual documentation if it has not already in place. For more information on the necessary legal documentation, please contact support@equias.org

Implementation can vary significantly based on an organisation’s readiness; both in terms of technical set up and business processing.  Clients should first connect to UAT environment for testing and assurance, prior to migrating to production.

As a minimum we recommend a client plan for 6 weeks for end-to-end implementation.

Any eCM client can see a real-time data flow of the confirmation process through eCM.

Unless requested by a client, the CMS will retain all client data while the service remains offered by Equias.

For more information on pricing and the fee schedule, please contact Equias at support@equias.org, or call us on +44(0)1372365760. 

For more information on pricing and the fee schedule, please contact Equias at support@equias.org, or call us on +44(0)1372365760. 

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