What is the Trade Blotter?

The Trade Blotter is the module in TAC where RMs record every trade executed on behalf of clients. Each submission creates a permanent audit record, runs an automatic compliance check, and — if the check passes — sends an approval request email to the designated approvers.

Trades should be entered as soon as they are executed at the broker. The blotter is not a staging area: once submitted, the record is live and the approval email is sent immediately.

The trade form — fields at a glance

Step by step

What happens after submission

Once a trade passes the compliance check:

• The trade appears in the Trade Blotter list with status Pending
• The designated approvers receive an email with the full trade details and an Approve / Reject link
• Once they action it, the status updates in TAC to Approved or Rejected
• Approved trades feed into the client's portfolio holdings view

Common errors

"Security must be selected from the dropdown"

You typed the security name but didn't click a result from the autocomplete list. The system needs the security's unique ID, which is only set when you click from the dropdown. Start typing again and click the correct result when it appears — don't press Enter or Tab.

"Please select a client" / client field shows an error

Same issue — the client must be selected from the autocomplete dropdown, not just typed. If you can't find the client, check the spelling or try the account number. If the client account doesn't exist in TAC yet, contact the TAC administrator to set it up.

"Trade blocked: [product type] requires a Type X licence"

The Pre-Trade Check determined that your firm doesn't hold the licence required to deal in this product type. The trade has not been saved. See the Pre-Trade Check article for what to do next.

The form submitted but I don't see the trade in the blotter

Refresh the page. The blotter list updates after the form closes. If the trade still doesn't appear after refreshing, it may have been blocked at the compliance check — check whether you saw a red error message at the bottom right of the screen when you submitted.

What does the Pre-Trade Check do?

Every time an RM submits a trade through the blotter, TAC looks up what type of product is being traded and checks whether your firm holds the SFC licence required to deal in it. If the licence is missing, the trade is blocked immediately — it is never saved, no approval email is sent, and the RM sees a clear error message on screen.

The same check runs automatically when bank statements are imported. If an incoming transaction involves a product your firm isn't licensed for, the row is flagged in the database and a compliance alert is raised. The import still completes — the flagged transaction is not deleted — but the breach is logged for review.

Which licences are checked?

The table below shows which SFC licence is required for each product type TAC currently recognises:

The Type 9 Discretionary Exemption

Under the Securities and Futures Ordinance (Cap 571, Schedule 5), a firm licensed for Type 9 — Asset Management does not need a separate Type 1 or Type 2 licence for trades made within a discretionary client mandate. The reasoning is that the firm is acting as the asset manager — not as a dealer — so the Type 9 covers the activity.

TAC applies this exemption automatically. If the client account is set up as Discretionary (mandate type = D) and your firm holds a Type 9 licence, the gate will not block the trade — even if the product type would normally require Type 1 or Type 2.

What the RM sees — step by step

Compliance Exceptions log (for compliance officers)

Every blocked trade is recorded automatically in the Compliance Exceptions log. Compliance officers can access this from the Compliance tab in TAC. Each entry shows:

• Security name — what was attempted
• Product type — e.g. Exchange-Traded Futures
• Required licence — what the firm is missing
• Date and time — when it happened
• Status — Open, Reviewed, or Resolved

Compliance can mark exceptions as reviewed with notes. This provides an audit trail showing that every breach was assessed and actioned.

Common questions

The trade is for a discretionary account — why is it still blocked?

The Type 9 exemption only applies when both conditions are met: the client account must be set up as Discretionary (mandate type = D) and the firm must hold a Type 9 licence. If either is missing, the gate fires. Check the account's mandate type in the client record. If it should be discretionary but is showing as advisory, update it and try again.

The RM typed the security name but got "security must be selected from the dropdown"

The licence check requires the security's unique system ID, which is only set when the RM clicks a result in the autocomplete dropdown — typing the name alone is not enough. The RM should type a few characters of the security name, wait for the dropdown to appear, and click the correct result before submitting.

How do I know which licences my firm holds?

Firm licences are configured by the TAC administrator. The gate reflects the licences recorded in the system. If a licence has been granted but the gate is still blocking, contact your TAC administrator to have the licence added.

An approval email was sent by mistake — what do I do?

Approval emails cannot be recalled once sent. If a test trade or erroneous submission triggered an email, notify the recipients directly that the approval request should be ignored. The TAC administrator can soft-delete the trade from the system.

How the approval flow works

When an RM submits a trade and it passes the Pre-Trade Check, TAC automatically sends an approval request email to the designated approvers. The approver reviews the trade details and clicks Approve or Reject — directly from the email, with no login required.

Approvers with an active TAC login can also action trades from inside the platform via the Outstanding Approvals panel, but the email route is the primary workflow.

Who receives the email?

TAC sends two different emails for each submitted trade:

What the approval email shows

The approval request email contains all the information an approver needs to make a decision:

• Client — the client account the trade is for
• Security — the security being traded
• Trade type — Buy or Sell
• Quantity — number of units or shares
• Price per unit — execution price
• Notional amount — total value of the trade
• Currency — settlement currency
• Notes — any additional context the RM included when submitting

At the bottom of the email are two buttons: Approve and Reject. Clicking either one opens a confirmation page in the browser — no TAC login is required.

Approving via email — step by step

Approving from within TAC

Approvers with an active TAC account and elevated access (Compliance Officer or Admin role) can also review and action trades without leaving the platform.

In the Trade Blotter, pending trades appear with a Pending status. Clicking into a trade shows the full details and presents Approve and Reject options. This is useful when reviewing a backlog of pending trades or when the email is not accessible.

What happens after a decision is made

Common questions

I clicked Approve/Reject but the page showed an error

The most common cause is that the trade was already actioned — either you clicked the link twice, or another approver actioned it first. Check the Trade Blotter in TAC to confirm the current status. If the status is still Pending and the error persists, contact the TAC administrator.

I didn't receive an approval email

Check your spam or junk folder first. If the email is not there, your email address may not be configured as an approval recipient in TAC. Contact the TAC administrator to check the approval settings and add you to the list.

Can I approve or reject on behalf of another approver?

No. Each approval link is tied to a specific approver's user ID. If you click the link from a forwarded email, the decision is recorded against the original recipient's account, not yours. If a designated approver is unavailable, the TAC administrator can reassign the approval or add a substitute approver in the settings.

A trade has been Pending for a long time — what should I do?

Approval emails don't expire, but a trade sitting in Pending status may mean the email was missed. Approvers can action the trade directly from the Trade Blotter in TAC without needing the email link. Contact the designated approver or the Compliance team to action it.

Can a rejected trade be resubmitted?

Yes. A rejected trade remains in the blotter as a record, but the RM can submit a new trade with corrected details. The rejection does not prevent a new submission — it is simply a record of the previous attempt.

What is Bank Statement Import?

Every month, custodian banks (Julius Baer, UBS, Deutsche Bank, BOS, and others) send PDF portfolio statements showing the holdings in each client account. TAC can read these PDFs automatically: you upload the file, AI extracts every holding — security name, ISIN, quantity, price, market value, and currency — and presents a review table before anything is saved.

Once you confirm, the holdings are written into TAC and become the basis for portfolio views, risk monitoring, and retrocession calculations. A pre-trade compliance check also runs automatically on each imported transaction to flag any products that require licences your firm doesn't hold.

Supported custodian banks

Step by step

What happens after a successful import

Once confirmed, the imported data flows through TAC automatically:

• The client's Portfolio view updates to reflect the new holdings
• Any risk limit breaches are recalculated against the fresh positions
• The retrocession module picks up the holdings for the next rebate calculation period
• If any rows were compliance-flagged, they appear in the Compliance Exceptions log for review
• The import is logged in Bank Statements → History with the file name, date, and user who confirmed

Common errors

"PDF appears to be a scanned image"

The AI extracts text directly from the PDF. If the statement is a scan (a photo of a printed page), there is no underlying text to extract. Ask the bank to resend the statement as a native digital PDF. Most custodians send digital PDFs by default — if yours is a scan, it may have been incorrectly forwarded or converted.

"Password-protected PDF — cannot read"

Some banks password-protect their statements. Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat or Preview, enter the password, then use File → Export as PDF to save an unlocked copy. Upload the unlocked copy to TAC.

Extraction completed but the holdings count looks wrong

This can happen if the statement has an unusual layout (e.g. multi-page tables with repeating headers, or subtotals that look like positions). Scroll through the review table carefully before confirming. If rows are missing or doubled, click Cancel — no data is saved — and contact the TAC administrator with the PDF attached so the template can be corrected.

A holding shows "Not matched" even though the security exists in TAC

The AI matches securities by ISIN first, then by name. If the ISIN in the PDF is different from the one recorded in TAC's security master (e.g. the bank uses a local market ISIN, TAC has the international one), the match will fail. Click the row to manually match it, or update the security in the Security Master to add the alternative ISIN.

A row is flagged for compliance — what do I do?

A Flagged row means the holding involves a product type that requires an SFC licence your firm doesn't currently hold (or the client account's mandate type doesn't cover it). You can still confirm the import — the holding will be recorded — but the compliance flag will appear in the Compliance Exceptions log for your Compliance Officer to review. See the Pre-Trade Check article for a full explanation.

I uploaded the wrong file — can I undo the import?

If you have not yet clicked Confirm Import, click Cancel — nothing has been saved. If you have already confirmed, contact the TAC administrator. Imports can be reversed (the holdings rows deleted from the database), but this requires an administrator action and cannot be undone by the user.