1.3 Oracle Balance Sheet Planning Key Benefits

The key benefits of OFS BSP are covered in the following sections:

Centralized Administration of Cash Flow Modelling Assumptions

System Administrators build and maintain Cash Flow Modelling assumptions including:

  • All Rate Management Functions
  • Interest Rate Curves and Historical Rates
  • Currencies and Historical Currency Exchange Rates
  • Rate Forecasts
  • All Modelling Assumptions including:
    • Product Characteristics
    • Behavior Patterns, Payment Patterns, and Repricing Patterns
    • Prepayment Rules and Prepayment Models
    • Transfer Pricing Rules
    • Transfer Pricing Adjustment Rules

Rigorous Calculations

Oracle BSP is designed to operate on transaction-level data using Oracle's highly accessible and flexible financial services Data Model. Each account, as well as all forecasted new-business activity, is modeled independently on a Daily Cash Flow basis.

Decentralized Collection and Processing of Balance Sheet and Margin Forecasts

  • Collect and process forecasts across large numbers of distributed Planning Centers.
  • Planning Administrators build and maintain maps that assign planning users to Planning Centers.
  • Planning Administrators assign a Planning Center - User Map to each Forecast Set to Control Access.
  • These Planning Center - User Maps support one-to-one assignments or many-to-many assignments.
  • You can have as many maps as you need, but the same Planning Center - User Map can be used for multiple Forecast Sets.
  • As super-planning users, Planning Administrators can all Forecast Sets without constraint.

Defined Workflows for Each Planning User

A “Planning Point” represents a distinct Product/Org/Currency combination found on your balance sheet.

On logging into the system and after selecting a Forecast Set to work with, BSP utilizes Planning Center <- -> User Maps to present each Planning User with a set of Planning Points that he/she is responsible for forecasting.

Each Planning Point features a clear Yes or No status regarding the following key indicators:

  • Are historical actuals available for the Planning Point?
  • Does current position forecast data exist for the Planning Point?
  • Is there a new business forecast for the Planning Point?
  • Has the new business forecast been processed through the Cash Flow Engine?
  • Have the forecast results for the Planning Point been reviewed/approved?

Planning Users forecast new business volumes and margins for each Planning Point, process their forecasts, and review their results.

Distinct Forecast Sets

A Forecast Set constitutes a discrete set of planning data. Examples might include the 2022 Budget, 18-Month Rolling Forecast as of October 2021, and so on.

  • Each Forecast Set represents a specific Scenario and Version of Forecast Data for a specified Starting Date and a specified duration.
  • You can have as many Forecast Sets as you need.
  • Only BSP System Administrators and BSP Planning Administrators can define and manage Forecast Sets.

BSP allows you to work simultaneously with multiple Forecast Sets. Two different Forecast Sets could be for the same period where one is for a Forecast Scenario and the other is for the Budget Scenario. Each of these Forecast Sets might also have multiple versions. You may also have forecast sets for different periods (example, one for October, one for November, and one for December).

Every Forecast Set having the same starting date will share the same underlying detailed instrument data and will share the same current position forecast results, but each Forecast Set stores its own forecasts of new business volumes and spreads as well as its own results for the new business forecasts.

Rolling Forecast Sets

Forecast Sets can reference other Forecast Sets. For example, when you are working on "Version 2" of a Forecast Set, the Administrator can configure the user interfaces to allow users to work on Version 2 while also giving them side-by-side views of data found in a previous Forecast Set (e.g., Version 1).

The same idea applies across time. For example, if you are working on a Forecast Set called "18 Month Rolling Forecast as of Jun 2022", that Forecast Set could display results from a previous Forecast Set (example, "18 Month Rolling Forecast as of May 2022".

Option to retain Planning Preferences from a previous Forecast Set

When building a new Forecast Set, BSP provides several options for recovering Forecast Data from previous Forecast Sets. One option is to retain the Forecast Balance Methods and/or Forecast Pricing Methods from a previous Forecast Set. Another option is to also retain the Forecast Balance drivers and/or Forecast Pricing drivers (that is, the actual forecast data) from a previous Forecast Set. The usefulness of this functionality is clear in the simple example of building a new version of a working set (e.g., Version 2 vs. Version 1), but it is particularly useful over time. Any new Forecast Set can be almost 100% ready for total-bank processing as soon as it is "initialized" if it can reference and re-use data from a previous Forecast Set.

Forecast Set Lifecycle

Administrators manage the lifecycle of each Forecast Set from Defined to Deleted.

  • Defined
    • Forecast Set is defined in outline.
  • Initialized
    • Forecast Set has been loaded with a current position runoff forecast provided by the System Administrator.
    • Administrators can access all planning functions on Initialized Forecast Sets.
    • Planning Users have no access to Initialized Forecast Sets.
  • Published
    • Planning User can access all Planning Functions on Published Forecast Sets.
    • Administrators can revoke access by re-setting a Forecast Set’s status to Initialized.
  • Locked
    • Locked Forecast Sets may not be updated but can be retained as required.
    • Locked Forecast Sets can continue to serve as “Prior Forecast Set” or as “Initialization Forecast Set” for other Forecast Sets.
  • Deleted
    • The Forecast Set definition has been deleted.
    • The Forecast Set’s projected new business volumes and margins have been deleted.
    • All of the Forecast Set’s result data have been deleted (both current book and new business results).
    • All of the logging data from OFSAA Batch jobs associated with the Forecast Set have been deleted.