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ACTUS Standard Overview

What is ACTUS?​

The ACTUS Standard (Algorithmic Contract Types Unified Standards) is a formal framework for representing financial contracts in a standardized algorithmic way. It provides a common language for modelling financial contracts and their future cash flows.

ACTUS defines a comprehensive set of contract types that describe how cash flows are generated for different financial agreements. This standardization enables consistent computation of contractual obligations across systems, institutions, and jurisdictions.

Financial contracts are often interpreted differently across institutions due to vague documentation, custom implementations, or informal conventions. ACTUS addresses this by formalizing contract logic to ensure it can be consistently and unambiguously understood, and by automating its execution so contracts can be reliably processed—whether for accounting, risk management, pricing, or regulatory reporting.

Why ACTUS?​

Financial contracts are the core building blocks of the financial system. Virtually everything the industry does involves the exchange of cash flows, which can be algorithmically represented. From this perspective, ACTUS serves as a central infrastructure element for modeling, automating, and understanding financial transactions.

Today, the financial industry faces a lack of interoperability and transparency in contract modeling. Different systems often represent the same contract in inconsistent ways. These inconsistencies hinder efficient automation and increase operational costs and risks.

The ACTUS Standard addresses this by providing:

  • Algorithmic contract definitions: deterministic logic for how contracts behave over time.
  • Standardized contract types and attributes: unified terminology and data structures.
  • Strict seperation between contracts (the known) and risk factors (the unknown): clear distinction between contractual logic and external market inputs. These features enable:
  • Efficient support for automation: consistent and reproducible cash flow generation.
  • Transparency and traceability: auditable logic behind financial outcomes.

What is ACTUS Used For?​

ACTUS is a central infrastructure element that adds value to a wide range of financial domains, including:

  • Risk modeling and scenario analysis
  • Portfolio valuation and cash flow forecasting
  • Regulatory reporting (e.g., stress testing, liquidity coverage)
  • Accounting and financial control
  • Smart contracts and digital financial infrastructure

Whether used in traditional banking systems, regulatory platforms, or modern FinTech solutions, ACTUS provides a solid foundation for the next generation of modeling financial contracts.

To understand how ACTUS works in detail, see the Core Concepts of ACTUS where we explain the building blocks like contract types, contract terms, business rules, and risk factors.