Staffing Requirements for ESA Holders and Batch Administrators

The Reserve Bank requires ESA holders and Batch Administrators to comply with certain operational requirements relating to the holding of an ESA. Members must familiarise themselves with the requirements relating to RITS staffing, which are summarised below. Further information is provided in RITS Staffing Requirements for ESA Holders and Batch Administrators (PDF).

Overall staffing level

• Members are required to have a pool of RITS users and password/certificate administrators based on an assessment of their own day-to-day staffing needs, taking into account volume of activity, participation in different sessions, staffing locations and shift arrangements, segregation of duties between teams/users, authorisation requirements, planned and unplanned staff absences, significant system upgrades and projects, and the need to react to contingency situations including use of alternative processing.

• It is strongly recommended that Members set dual authorisations on RITS functionality that could adversely impact a Member were the settings or transactions to be entered incorrectly.

• All RITS users are required to undertake sufficient training, which must be refreshed on a regular basis. Users can access online User Guides on the RITS Information Facility.

Availability of staff

• RITS Members are responsible for putting in place staffing arrangements that are sufficient to permit the timely and accurate completion of RITS Payment Operations during the RITS sessions in which the Member participates, including during contingency events.

• The teams and staff required in each session will depend on the RITS Payment Operations activities carried out in the session. Members must ensure they are able to deal with unanticipated staff absences and contingency situations.

• To be considered ‘available’, the Bank’s expectations are that RITS users:
• can monitor RITS activity and be informed of incidents in a timely manner, either by logging in to the RITS UI or by setting up relevant advices and alerts (e.g. by making use of the AIF unsolicited advices, and FSS notifications and alerts);
• can promptly undertake necessary actions relating to their ESA (including executing, authorising and settling transactions, or resetting passwords depending on the staff member’s role) and respond in a timely manner to incidents; and
• are contactable by the RITS Help Desk and, where relevant, other market participants.

RITS operating hours

• RITS staff must be available during the Daily Settlement Session and until the close of the Settlement Close Session. Members participating in the 9am Settlement must have these staff available in the Morning Session to enable timely funding of any 9am Settlement debit amounts.

• Evening Agreed Members must ensure that sufficient staff are available until all settlements are completed in the Evening Settlement Session. If regular contact numbers will be unattended, members must notify the Reserve Bank of alternate contact arrangements. Participants in the cash market are expected to be available and contactable by other cash market participants until the end of the SWIFT End Session.

• All Members with an outstanding RBA Repo who have not made arrangements with the Reserve Bank Dealing Room for taking the RBA Repo overnight must have front-office and back-office staff available until the RBA Repo is reversed.

• If RITS sessions are extended, the RBA expects that Members’ staff will be available and contactable (for those sessions that they participate in) for the duration of the extension.

CHESS, eftpos and Mastercard batches

• Participants in the CHESS, eftpos and Mastercard batches must actively monitor batch transactions until settlement is complete.

Reservation batches

• Liquidity management staff must be available to monitor property reservation batch activity until the Member’s last batches have settled.

Fast Settlement Service

• Staff must be available to respond to operational incidents and take appropriate measures to conserve liquidity outside of Austraclear opening hours and cash market hours.

Staff locations

• Management responsibility for the ESA must rest with management located in Australia.

• Staff responsible for day-to-day RITS operations and/or administration may be located offshore, as long as:
• responsibility for the ESA rests with management located in Australia;
• there are sufficient contingency resources maintained in Australia; and
• offshore operations staff are available during RITS operating hours.

• Where a Member has outsourced routine RITS operations and/or administration overseas, the Bank requires that staff based in the Australian office would be able to take over and complete RITS Payment Operations in a timely manner, if required. Local staff must be adequately trained to use RITS, and have the capability and authority to manage the RTGS queue, undertake cash transactions and operate the ESA at any time, including in contingency situations.

Office location(s) for staff and work from home

• It is expected that ESA holders and Batch Administrators will have at least one corporate office site at which Key Staff work. Staff working from home is acceptable provided that the staff can access RITS and other systems necessary and that the technology supporting working from home provides appropriate level of security and reliability.

• ESA holders and Batch Administrators must define and regularly review the minimum number of Key Staff that are required to be physically present at the member’s corporate office site(s) during the RITS sessions that they participate in.

• The minimum number defined must be a risk-based decision that seeks to ensure RITS Payment Operations, including the sourcing and provision of liquidity, can continue without undue disruption during a contingency.

Compliance

• The RBA may conduct ad hoc tests of Members’ compliance with these requirements.

Members are required to attest compliance with the Bank’s RITS staffing requirements as part of the annual self-certification against the Business Continuity and Security Standards for RITS Members.