The GSTP is an industry-led initiative to develop a seamless process for post-trade processing of cross-border securities.

The objective of the scripted phase of testing is for participants to demonstrate that they can interoperate effectively with counterparties via the Transaction Flow Manager (TFM) to match trades and settlement details and internally process such information. During this phase, operations at pilot institutions are set up, including systems, staff and work procedures.

Scott Long, Nicholas Applegate, an investment manager pilot participant, comments: "Testing our current trading environment connectivity with our existing counterparties is proving beneficial as it builds solid experience with the business processes and the live production environment. To date, the pilot testing has shown that the TFM can support connectivity towards T+1 settlement."

During this second phase of testing, pilot participants follow predefined scripts representing a wide selection of equity and fixed income instruments and addressing a broad range of possible scenarios.

Joe Acer of State Street GSTP Operations says the firm has successfully completed two cycles of equity testing, which involved a dozen counterparts in five markets. "We're especially pleased to be using our end platform for these tests," he says. "That platform comprises the recently completed GSTP workflow application and real-time messaging engine that we will enter production with."

Once completed, the scripted testing phase will be followed by the parallel run before live production.

Seperately, RBC Global Services, Institutional & Investor Services (IIS) has confirmed that it will act as a 'concentrator' for the GSTP utility, channelling trade flows between financial firms and the Transaction Flow Manager.