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ACTUS Competition Pre-Announcement

The ACTUS Financial Research Foundation (“ACTUS Foundation”, http://www.ACTUSfrf.org ) is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization providing freely available fully integrated financial contract standard comprised of two fundamental components that describe the data formats and algorithms common to all financial contracts. Financial contracts are basic building blocks for finance, including cash flow agreements, risk analysis and nearly all financial reports. Standardized contract term specification and cash flow generating algorithms provide a basis for all further financial analysis. In particular, the ACTUS Standard facilitates forward-looking “what if” analysis, the ability to consistently and accurately consolidate financial contract information across business units of a firm or across financial institutions, flexible and robust data aggregation, and the generation of financial reports capable of drilling down to the most granular financial contract level for any number of future scenarios. This significantly improves the understanding of both risks and opportunities.

With its two components, the ACTUS Data Dictionary and the ACTUS Cash Flow Generating Algorithms library, the ACTUS Foundation provides a universal infrastructure (or middleware) layer that is itself a financial risk management and operations system but -- when integrated into them -- makes existing systems more accurate, transparent and efficient and often extends their risk analytic capabilities. In this sense, it’s a game changer whose potential for application is huge. Intended users of the ACTUS infrastructure layer encompass all participants in the financial system, from fund and portfolio managers, banks with traditional or digital infrastructure, clearing houses, and regulatory agencies.

At present, most of the functionality of the ACTUS layer is completed. ACTUS is ready for a large-scale roll-out. To further the use of ACTUS and to highlight its power, the ACTUS Foundation is organizing a COMPETITION for building prototype applications that use ACTUS. The challenge for competitors is to provide services or applications utilizing ACTUS to provide increased value for financial institutions and other users with critical reliance on financial contracts. Examples of such services might include programs that increase the ease of incorporation of ACTUS into existing systems as well as applications enabling special types of analysis, such as the field of risk analysis. Both commercial proprietary and open-source applications are welcome. However, all proposals and submissions will become the property of the ACTUS Foundation.

Details​

The competition will take place in two phases. During the first phase, applicants shall prepare a written description of no more than 5 pages of the services or apps they plan to develop. The description should not include actual computer code, but it could include pseudo code to show what the service or app will enable. The first phase will last 8 weeks, during which time candidates should take advantage of the ACTUS training documentation and training applications.

Between the first and second phase, there will be a four-week interval for evaluation of the submission. During this time, members of the evaluation committee may contact some of the applicants for additional material.

Five submissions will be selected to enter the second phase. Each of the semifinalists will receive a prize by the end of the competition if they submit their working product in phase 2. The winner of the competition will be selected from the semi-finalists and will be awarded an additional prize.

Evaluation​

Applications will be judged on how well they contribute to the value of ACTUS for potential adopters. Applications that include models for risk management, cash management, or other financial service’s activities will be judged based upon the ways that they utilize the ACTUS standard to increase their desirability and not on the model’s mathematical advances. The emphasis of a successful application will be on how the adoption of the ACTUS standard meets the business objectives of a targeted user.

The evaluation will be done by a committee whose members will be selected by the ACTUS Foundation. The evaluation will proceed in a way that conflicts of interest between the members of the evaluation committee and applicants are excluded/minimized.

Further information​

Specific details for the competition including terms and conditions as well as dates will be forthcoming. Individuals who wish to learn more about ACTUS should visit the ACTUS Financial Research Foundation website: Home | ACTUS (actusfrf.org) This site provides links to documentation and to the ACTUS GitHub, which should provide competitors with adequate information to make a successful submission. Additional questions can be submitted to competition@actusfrf.org.

The decision of the evaluation committee will be final; legal recourse is excluded.

The written initial submissions and the documentation and software submitted for the competition will become the property of the ACTUS Financial Research Foundation (“ACTUSfrf”). All submission material, code, and documentation submitted for the competition may be used by ACTUSfrf in further development and promotion of ACTUS and, at the determination of ACTUSfrf, may be made available to the public. Submissions may not require commercial software that is not freely available. Applicants who intend to further develop their proposed services or apps into a commercial product should not include in a submission that which they feel to be proprietary information and material.