4. 1. Introduction
In 2009, during the time of recession and financial sector was feeling the heat, a big consolidation took
place in the sector. One of the leading investment banks Citibank sold 51% share of its Global wealth
Management division, called Smith Barney, to Morgan Stanley. The remaining 49% would be with Citi
group and the joint venture would be known as Morgan Stanley Smith Barney (MSSB). As of now, Citi
has its own MIS and reporting system for variable loan products which Morgan Stanley does not have.
Since business processes are not the same in two groups, there is a need to develop a new system to
perform variable interest rate lending products reporting. The new system will be known as “Interest rate
Management System” or IRMS.
This document tries to define the overall software requirements for „Interest Rate Management System‟.
It aims to define the requirements exhaustively and accurately. The final product will be having only
features/functionalities mentioned in this document and assumptions for any additional
functionality/feature should not be made by any of the parties involved in
developing/testing/implementing/using this product. In this case it is required to have some additional
features, a formal change request will need to be raised and subsequently a new release of this document
and/or product will be produced as per the agreement.
1.1 Purpose
This specification document describes the capabilities that will be provided by the software application
„Interest Rate Management System‟. It also clearly mentions the various required constraints by which
the system will abide. The intended audiences for this document are the development team, testing team
and end-users (financial advisor in this case) of this product.
1.2 Scope
The software product „Interest Rate Management System‟ will be an MIS and reporting application. The
application will be used for managing the activities of library of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. The
application will manage the information of various clients and investors that have relationships with the
investment bank, their wealth and assets, various lending product information, past association/track
record, assigned investment banker/financial advisor‟s details and the net revenue generated. Printable
reports regarding list of clients, investment bankers, historical data and other relevant details will be
generated. The system will serve as MIS and reporting tool where rates are variable in nature.
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5. 1.3 Definitions, Acronym, Abbreviation
MSSB:
IRMS:
FA:
User:
LIBOR:
DBA:
IBM DB2:
ASP:
IIS:
RAM:
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney
Interest Rate Management System
Financial Advisor
The login id having some or all access to the system
London Inter-Bank Offered Rate
Database Administrator
Relational database developed by IBM
Active Server Pages (a web page formatted on server and delivered to browser)
Internet Information Services
Random Access Memory
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6. 2. Overall Description
2.1 Product Perspective
The software product will be a web based system which would run on an intranet. It will also be
connected to the outside world through a secured channel to gather real time data on interest rates.
Internally, it would interact with several other systems to receive and disseminate data.
2.1.1 System Interface
The Interest Rate Management System would need to interact with a variety of systems to facilitate the
function. It will talk to following systems:
The new system will interact, through the internet, to the external world. The base interest rates
(LIBOR rates) are determined on a daily basis and released by Reuters. Hence the IRMS will
fetch these daily feeds for its reporting purpose.
The new system will take inputs from another system for client details and stores the same. Since
IRMS is only a reporting tool, it does not have visibility to the new clients or changes in existing
data. Such details will be taken from other internal systems every day.
The job of IRMS is to serve as an MIS tool only. It does not process the loans or other
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7. computations. For this purpose it submits data to other sub-systems. Any loans will be saved in
IRMS first before any further processing.
2.1.2 User Interface
The Interest Rate Management System will have a user friendly and menu based interface. Following
screens will be provided:
A Login screen for entering the username, password and role (Administrator, Financial Advisor,
Management) will be provided. Access to different screens will be based upon the role of the
user.
There will be a screen which will list all borrower‟s data falling into a particular region,
associated with a particular FA or from the same branch. The screen would give details like
Loan No., Borrower Name, Address, Branch, FA, Loan Amount, Interest Rate, Interest Amount,
Loan Issue Date, Next Installment Due Date and Loan status (active, pending, approved,
rejected, cancelled or expired).
The above list will have the Borrower name as a hyperlink. By clicking on the same, a new
screen will appear with will list out the past record for the same recipient. The screen will have
details like Loan No., Borrower Name, Address, Branch, FA, Loan Amount, Interest Rate, Issue
Date and Loan Status.
There will be a standalone screen which would display all lending products offered by MSSB.
The screen will have details like Loan Product, Base rate, Spread (Premium) and Total Charged
Rate. This base rate gets updated daily, based on Reuters input.
There will be a search screen which will have the Loan No., Name, Branch, FA, Issue Date, Due
Date, Loan Product, Loan status and fields. The fields will alone or with combination of other
fields will be used to search a particular account or a set of accounts.
There will be a screen which will facilitate the addition of new records. This screen is supposed
to be used on the ad - face basis (actual updating will happen through a daily batch process).
Only administrators will be able to perform this function.
A separate screen would provide functionality to modify or delete an existing record. As
mentioned above, only administrators will have authority to perform this function.
One screen would be accessible to administrators only and contain audit information (changes
done in the database).
The following reports (only on demand basis) will be generated by this system:
A report containing a list of all borrowers falling into a particular region, associated with a
particular FA or from the same branch will be created. Reports can also be generated on other
fields such as Loan issued on a specific date, for a definite installment date, accounts pertaining
to same lending products and so on.
A report containing historical records of any particular beneficiary for limited or all time period,
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8. will be generated.
A report containing a list of accounts in a desired time period along with their loan amounts will
be created.
A list showing the trend of rates (as determined by Reuters) for any one or all products for the
past six months will be published.
A report showing new added loan accounts in a given time period will be published.
2.1.3 Hardware Interface
An extensive network base system as the system will be accessed by over 10000 FAs and
expected concurrent users are in the range of 700-1000.
Screen resolution of minimum 1024 X 768 is required for proper viewing of screens. Higher
resolutions will not be an issue.
User Machine Requirements:
Support for the printing devices is required. Appropriate drivers should be available and
installed. Printers (inkjet/deskjet/dot-matrix etc.) are connected properly for printing reports.
Operating System: Windows 9x/XP or above/MAC/Unix
Processor: Pentium 3.0 GHz or higher
RAM: 512 MB or more
Hard Drive: 10 GB or more
Internet Browser: IE 6.0 or above
Server Machine Requirements:
Operating System: Windows 9x/XP or above
Processor: Pentium 5.0 GHz or higher
RAM: 4 GB or more
Hard Drive: 500 GB or more
Internet Browser: IE 6.0 or above
2.1.4 Software Interface
Any Windows based operating system.
Database: IBM DB2
Application: ASP (Active Server Pages)
Web Server: IIS (Internet Information Services (IIS) is a powerful Web server that provides a
highly reliable, manageable, and scalable Web application infrastructure.
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9. 2.1.5 Memory Constraints
Minimum memory requirement is 512 MB RAM and 10 GB space on hard disk for smooth running of
this application.
2.1.6 Communication Interface
None
2.1.7 Operations
This product release will not cover any automated housekeeping aspects of the database. The DBA at
the client side (with administrator level authority) will be responsible for manually deleting old/nonrequired data. Database backup and recovery will also have to be handled by the DBA.
However, the system will provide a „Reset System‟ function that will delete (upon confirmation from
the administrator) all the existing information from the database.
2.1.8 Site Adaptation Requirement
The terminal at the client side will have to support the hardware and software interface specified in the
above sections.
2.2 Product Function
The system will allow access only to authorized user with specific roles. Depending upon user‟s role
they will be able to access only specific modules of the system. A summary of the major functions that
the software will perform is mentioned below:
A login facility for enabling only authorized access to the system
Users (with administrator authority) will be able to add/modify/delete information about the
clients.
User (with administrator authority) will be able to reset password and reset whole system.
User (with access level other than administrator) will able to view all desired information but
would not be able to make changes.
User (with access level other than administrator) will be able to generate and print various
reports as listed above.
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10. 2.3 User Characteristics
Educational Level: all FAs and managements will be having expertise in understanding
financial products. The intended users are CFAs, MBAs, CFPs and so on.
Experience: Should be well versed with financial markets and instruments and also the
information required for maintaining the tables.
Technical Expertise: Should be comfortable using general purpose applications on computer.
Should have exposure to the internet and web browsing.
2.4 Constraints
Due to limited features of the DBMS being used, database auditing will be provided.
Also, as the number of records increase, the system will tend to get slower.
Users will have to implement a security policy to safeguard information from being modified by
unauthorized users.
2.5 Assumptions and Dependencies
The number of records that will be displayed on one screen list will not be changed.
The layout of input as well as output will not be altered.
The system will depend upon inputs from the other system for its daily feed.
The interest rates will have dependencies on the Reuters feed.
2.6 Apportioning of Requirement
Not Required
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11. 3. Specific Requirements
This is defined as the software requirements to a level of detail sufficient to design.
3.1 External Interface Requirements
3.1.1 User Interface
Login Screen:
This will be the first screen that will be displayed. It will allow user to access based upon the user‟s role.
Various fields allow users access based upon the user‟s role. Various fields are
User ID: Alphanumeric of length up to 10 characters
Role: will have the following values: Administrator, FA, Management
Listing Screen:
This screen would provide functionality for listing out of client information. This screen will be
available to all users. Users have to provide search fields in order to filter the data.
Detail Screen:
This screen would provide historical data of a particular client. The screen is also available to all users.
Reference Screen:
This screen is used to view all loan products on that given day. This screen is also available to all users.
Search screen:
This screen is used for searching a particular client or a set of client based on search criteria. It will be
accessible to all users.
Insert Screen:
This screen is only available to administrators. It will facilitate adding a new record.
Update Screen:
It will be used to modify or delete an existing record and will be accessible to administrators only.
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12. Audit Screen:
This screen is used for displaying all changes done in the database by a particular or all administrators. It
will be accessible only to users with administrators authority.
3.2 System Product Feature
3.2.1 Loan Information Management
Description:
The system will maintain information about various loans being issued during different time periods.
The following information would be maintained for the loans:
Loan No., Borrower Name, Address, Branch, FA, Loan Amount, Interest Rate, Interest Amount, Loan
Issue Date, Next Installment Due Date and Loan status
Validity Check:
Only FAs, Management and Administrators will have authorized access.
Each loan will have a unique loan number.
Each loan will have only one lending products in its entire cycle.
Loan No., borrower‟s name, address, branch, loan amount and loan status can not be spaces.
Error Handling/Response to Abnormal Situations:
If any of the above validations/sequencing flow does not hold true, appropriate error messages will be
prompted to the user for doing the needful.
3.2.2 Loan Product Information Maintenance
Description:
The system will maintain information about various lending products that are issued by Reuters. This
information will be backed up for a period of 6 months. Following information will be maintained for
each product:
Loan Product
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13. Base rate
Spread (Premium)
Total Charged Rate
Date
The system will allow addition/modification or deletion of the records. This will assist in having only
the offered product information. The changes could only be done by administrators.
Validity Check:
Only FAs, Management and Administrators will have authorized access.
Each loan product will be pegged with at least one base rate.
Loan Product Name, Base Rate, Date, Total Charged Rate could not be spaces.
Error Handling/Response to Abnormal Situations:
If any of the above validations/sequencing flow does not hold true, appropriate error messages will be
prompted to the user for doing the needful.
3.2.3 Report Generation
Loan Information:
This report would give information about the various loans depending upon the search/filter criteria.
Report Format:
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney
Interest Rate Management System
Loan Summary Report
Loan
No.
Name of Address Branch FA Amount
Borrower
of Loan
Interest
Rate
Interest
Amount
Loan
Issue
Date
Due
Date
Status
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14. Lending Product Information:
This report would give information about the various products offered depending upon the time period.
Report Format:
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney
Interest Rate Management System
Product Summary Report
Loan Products
Base Rate
Spread
Total Charged Rate
Date
3.2.4 User Account Information Maintenance
Description:
The system will maintain information about various users who would be able to use the system. The
following information would be maintained.
User name
User Id
Password
Role
Validity Check:
Only users with role FA/Administrator and the management will be authorized to access the User
Accounts Information Maintenance Module.
None of the fields (user name, user id, password or role) can be blank.
There should be a unique user id for every user.
Sequencing Information
User Account for a particular user has to be created in order for the system to be accessible to that user.
At system start up, only a default user account for „Administrator‟ would be present in the system.
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15. Error Handling/Response to Abnormal Situations:
If any of the above validations/sequencing flow does not hold true, appropriate error messages will be
prompted to the user for doing the needful.
3.3 Performance Requirement
The system should be capable of handling large amount of data. It should be able to run queries
on 1 billion records.
The system should facilitate a total of 15000 user logins.
The system should be able to run for 700-1000 concurrent logins.
3.4 Design Constraints
None
3.5 Software System Attributes
3.5.1 Security
The application will be password protected. Users will have to enter correct username, password and
role in order to access the application. All the external interfaces such as through the internet or with
other system will have an additional middle layer which would act as security firewall.
3.5.2 Maintainability
The system will be designed in a maintainable manner. It will be easy to incorporate new requirements.
3.5.3 Portability
The system will be easily portable to any Windows based system that has MS Office 2007 installed.
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16. 3.6 Logical Database Requirement
Following information will be placed in the database.
Loan Info: Loan No., Borrower Name, Address, Branch, FA, Loan Amount, Interest Rate,
Interest Amount, Loan Issue Date, Next Installment Due Date and Loan status
Product Info: Loan Product, Base Rate, Spread, Total Charged Rate, Date
User Info: User name, User Id, Password, Role
Audit Info: User Id, Date, Time, Table, Comment
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