Most systems that claim to handle Agency MBS handle part of it. These are the questions that show you which part. Ask them of us, and ask them of anyone else you are looking at.
Matching that depends on a file drop or a manual upload is not matching. Ask whether the system connects to DTCC directly and what happens to an unmatched trade.
A buy-side tool that cannot model the dealer side leaves half the workflow outside the system. Ask whether the same platform runs dealer operations.
Most of the month is standard TBA. The exceptions are where the manual work concentrates, and where systems quietly hand the problem back.
Every vendor says straight-through processing. Ask what happens on the trades that are not straight-through, and whether the team works a queue or works the breaks.
This is the question that separates automation from a template. Ask how long from offset to the assignment reaching the third dealer, and whether anyone touches it. Why this matters →
There is a large difference between assembling a round robin and placing the trades. Ask whether the platform connects to the venue and executes, or whether it hands the work back to the front office. How ours works →
Pair-offs are the easy case. If they are not fully automatic and unconditional, ask what else is not.
Assignments are legal documents. Ask where they live afterward and how you produce one two years later for an audit.
This is a yes or a no, and it is checkable. Ask for it early.
A sample or a cached subset is not the universe. Ask what the validation runs against and how often it refreshes.
Pools get substituted. A system that validates once at allocation and never again will pass a bad pool through.
Ask whether the system enforces the rules or expects the operator to know them.
Ask whether reporting goes out on a schedule without anyone starting it, and what message types are supported.
Not every counterparty is. Ask what happens to those, and whether the answer involves somebody sending something by hand.
Ask how you prove a report was sent, when, and to whom. If the answer is a sent folder, that is the answer.
Reconciling your own book is table stakes. Ask whether the system reconciles what you think you have against what your counterparty thinks they have.
Ask for the list. OMS and EMS platforms, clearing utilities, trading venues, pool data providers, and whether the connection is API, SFTP or a file someone drops.
A lot of this market still runs on mainframes that were never designed to take a modern feed. Ask what the integration options actually are.
Most systems automate one desk. Ask whether the counterparty can see the trade and its clearance impact, or whether they find out by email. How the network handles this →
Central clearing is coming to this market. Ask whether adapting to it is your project or theirs.
Not how long the company has existed. How long this software has been running real settlement for real firms.
Ask for ISO 27001 and ISO 22301, and ask when they were last renewed rather than whether they exist. Ours are here →
You are taking a dependency on this firm for years. Ask whether anyone outside it has assessed whether it will still be there.
Ask what implementation looks like, how long it takes, and who is on the other end of the phone in month eighteen.
We wrote these because they are the questions we get asked by the firms that evaluate us most carefully, and because a buyer armed with them makes a better decision than one working from a feature grid.
