5.3.1.4 Time Buckets
The Time Bucket Rules allow users to create the time bucket definitions used for computing and outputting aggregated cash flows across time. The Time Bucket Rules determine the granularity of cash flow output and can be set at any frequency through a combination of daily, monthly, and yearly buckets. Time Buckets can be defined for the following types of ALM output:
- Income Simulation
Income Simulation Buckets allow you to specify the time periods used for storing and reporting results. These bucket definitions set the modeling horizon for date-related business rule assumptions. When you change the number or frequency of the modeling buckets, existing business rules are affected.
Be cautious when changing Time Bucket definitions when known dependencies exist.
You can specify any combination of days, months, and years when setting up the buckets. Although all Oracle ALM cash flows are generated daily, they are aggregated into defined income simulation buckets when results are stored. Reports access information from the income simulation buckets and let you aggregate buckets. For example, you can define monthly income simulation buckets but generate a quarterly income statement. On the other hand, you cannot generate a weekly balance sheet if all income simulation buckets are monthly.
If you want to use different configurations of income simulation buckets, such as all monthly or all quarterly, you should create a separate Time Bucket rule for each and use an appropriate naming convention to identify these characteristics. All date-related assumption rules should be defined and used in the context of a single set of Income Simulation buckets or a single Time Bucket Rule.
Income Simulation Bucket definitions are referenced by all bucket based forecast business rules, including Forecast Rates, Forecast Balances, Pricing Margins and Maturity Mix Rules, and also by ALM Deterministic Processes during ALM Engine processing.
- Interest Rate GAP
Interest Rate GAP Buckets allow you to define Interest Rate (repricing) GAP buckets including a catch all bucket to move reprice gap output for Non Interest Rate Sensitive products. From this screen, you can also define Dynamic Start Dates (as of date is always the initial start date), which allows you to generate both static and dynamic GAP simulations.
With this Dynamic Start Date capability, users can also define forward start dates for computing dynamic market valuations. The Dynamic Start Date capability allows you to consider the amortization of existing business and any new business assumptions that are applicable between the current as of date and the future dated – Dynamic Start Date. You must set up Income Simulation Buckets before defining Interest Rate GAP Buckets.
Only Interest Rate GAP financial elements are impacted by the Interest Rate GAP bucket definitions. The Interest Rate GAP financial elements range from FE660 to FE700.
- Liquidity GAP
Liquidity GAP Buckets are similar to Interest Rate GAP Buckets. The only difference is that Liquidity Bucket definitions impact only the Liquidity Runoff financial elements, which range from FE 1660 to 1717.
This module describes the procedure for working with and managing the Time Bucket Rules.
Time Bucket Rule Summary
Search Time Bucket Rule
This page is the gateway to all Time Bucket Rules and related functionality. You can navigate to other pages relating to Time Bucket Rules from this point.
Figure 5-103 Time Bucket Summary
Prerequisites: Predefined Time Bucket Rule
To search for a Time Bucket Rule:
Click Search after entering the search criteria. The search results are displayed in a table containing all the Time Bucket Rules that meet the search criteria.
Or
An alternative method to search a Time Bucket Rule is through the Field Search option. This is an inline wildcard UI search that allows you to enter a search value (such as code, name, etc.) partially or fully. Rows that contain the string you are searching for are fetched and displayed in the Time Bucket Rule Summary. You can enter the Code, Name, Description, and Folder of the Time Bucket Rule and click Search.
The Time Bucket Rule Summary displays the following information:
Add: Click the Add icon on the page header to build a new Time Bucket Rule.
Multiple Delete: Enables you to select and delete one or multiple rules in the table simultaneously.
- Name: The Time Bucket Rule's short name.
- Time Bucket Convention: The Time Bucket Convention.
- Created By: The Name of the user who created the Time Bucket.
- Created Date: The Date and Time at which the Time Bucket was created.
- Last Modified By: The user who last modified the Time Bucket Rule.
- Last Modified Date: The Date and Time when the Time Bucket Rule was last modified.
- Folder: The Folder where the Time Bucket Rule is saved.
- Action: Click this icon to view a list of
actions that you can perform on the Time Bucket Rule.
- View/Edit: Based on the user privilege assigned, you can either only view or edit existing Time Bucket Rules. To edit a rule, you must have Read/Write privilege.
- Save As: You can reuse a Time Bucket Rule by saving it under a new name thus saving time and effort in entering data multiple times; it also leads to reduced data entry errors.
- Delete: You can delete Time Bucket Rules that you no longer require. Note that only Time Bucket Rule owners and those with Read/Write privileges can delete Time Bucket Rules. A Time Bucket Rule that has a dependency cannot be deleted. A rule cannot be retrieved after deletion.
- Dependency Check: You can perform a dependency check to know where a particular Time Bucket Rule has been used. Before deleting a rule, it is always a good practice to do a dependency check to ensure you are not deleting Time Bucket Rules that have dependencies. A report of all rules that utilize the selected Time Bucket Rule is generated.
Also See: