The Settlement Liquidity Groups API enables Participants to retrieve information associated with the Settlement Liquidity Groups that they are authorised. For example, a participant can:
- view a list of Settlement Liquidity Groups
- view details of a specific Settlement Liquidity Groups
- view a specific Settlement Liquidity Group's balance allocations detail
This API is usable by any Participant organisation that has an RTGS Account with Bank of England irrespective of the Schemes they are subscribed to. The below image depicts the information that can be retrieved with the Settlement Liquidity Groups API.
Settlement Liquidity Group details:
A Settlement Liquidity Group is a collection of settlement and liquidity Balance Allocations, which is used to determine funds available for settlement in RTGS. The Settlement Liquidity Group constrains to what extent the settlement account Balance Allocations covered by the group can go "overdrawn" when settling payment obligations. E.g. a Balance Allocation for CHAPS settlement can go overdrawn up to the value of the liquidity Balance Allocation associated within the same Settlement Liquidity Group.
The Settlement Liquidity Groups API provides Settlement Liquidity Group Id parameter to retrieve a filtered list of Settlement Liquidity Groups. Additionally, Participants can also retrieve a list of Settlement Liquidity Groups filtered by the below parameters:
- Settlement Liquidity Group Name
- Negative Balance
- Participant ID
- Scheme Code
The below image lists the various Settlement Liquidity Groups attributes available for retrieval using the API.
Balance Allocations:
A Balance Allocation is a container which enables a portion of an account balance to be segregated so that it can be grouped into a Settlement Liquidity Group to provide liquidity to back settlement in RTGS. Participants can use the Account Id to query the balance allocations of a specific Account they are authorised to. The below image lists the various RTGS Balance Allocation types and sub-types available for retrieval using the Accounts API.
| Balance Allocation Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Allocated |
Balance Allocation types "Allocated" can only be used for the allocated purpose and funds can go to/from this Balance Allocation directly |
| Common |
|
| Restricted |
Balance Allocation types "Restricted" can only be accessed via a Balance Allocation-Balance Allocation transfer and funds can never go to/from this Balance Allocation directly |
Filter Values:
The Settlement Liquidity Groups API has various fields that have a predefined set of values e.g. Balance Allocation Type, Balance Allocation Status etc. To retrieve the possible values of all these fields, Participants can use the Filter Values API Get Resource by passing the relevant Resource Name of the field.
For detailed information around fields that have a predefined set of values across all RTGS API please refer to the following page Filter Values API.
Settlement Liquidity Groups API Use Cases & Benefits
- Ability to manage liquidity more efficiently
- Ability to manage Settlement Liquidity balances more efficiently
- Fuels innovation
- Promotes automation
- Reduction of manual effort
- Cost saving
- Integrated user experience
Supported Developer Toolkit:
Bank of England RTGS APIs will be supported by Swift Microgateway and Swift SDK.Both solutions, provided by Swift, offer access to the APIs. Bank of England hosts a reference implementation based on Swift Microgateway and we can help you start with the API connectivity using this option.
If you are already a user of any of these solutions, just download the API Specification and follow the Swift recommended steps to import it into your implementation.