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    • Staffing Requirements for ESA Holders and Batch Administrators

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    The Reserve Bank requires ESA holders to comply with a range of operational requirements relating to the holding of an ESA. Members must familiarise themselves with these requirements, which are summarised below. Further information is provided in RITS Staffing Requirements for ESA Holders and Batch Administrators (PDF).

    Minimum onsite staff presence

    • ESA holders and Batch Administrators must define and regularly review the minimum number of Key Staff that are required to be physically present at the member’s Primary and Alternate Site(s) during the RITS sessions that they participate in.
    • The minimum number defined must be a risk-based decision that seeks to ensure RITS Payment Operations can continue without undue disruption during a contingency.

    Staffing requirements for Batch Administrators

    • Batch Administrators are required to comply with the agreed staffing requirements documented in the Operational and Contingency Procedures for the batch that they administer.

    Staffing requirements for ESA holders

    Staff locations

    • RITS operations and/or administration may be undertaken from offshore, as long as:
      • responsibility for the ESA rests with management located in Australia;
      • there are sufficient contingency resources located in Australia; and
      • offshore operations staff are available during RITS operating hours.
    • Where a Member has outsourced RITS operations and/or administration overseas, there must be at least four (4) staff based in the Australian office. Local staff must be adequately trained to use RITS, and have the capability and authority to manage the RTGS queue, undertake vital cash transactions and operate the ESA at any time.
    • Holders of a CS facility licence may be eligible to apply for an exemption from the requirement to maintain management and contingency resources in Australia, subject to having appropriate management and operational resources in an approved offshore location.

    Staff Coverage

    • Members must have at least three (3) front office users, three (3) back office users and two (2) password/certificate administrators available during the RITS sessions that the Member participates.
    • Members without front/back office functions must have four (4) active RITS users and two (2) password/certificate administrators available during the RITS sessions that the Member participates.
    • Members are required to have a pool of RITS users and administrators based on an assessment of their own day-to-day staffing needs, taking into account volume of activity, participation in different sessions, authorisation requirements, planned staff absences, significant system upgrades and projects, and contingencies such as unanticipated staff absences.
    • It is strongly recommended that Members set dual authorisations on RITS functionality that could adversely impact a Member were the settings or transactions to be entered incorrectly.
    • All RITS users are required to receive sufficient training, which must be refreshed on a regular basis.

    Availability of staff

    • The Bank expects that appropriate users and administrators will be available during RITS operating hours.
    • To be considered ‘available’, the Bank’s expectations are that RITS users:
      • can monitor RITS activity and be informed of incidents in a timely manner, either by logging in to the RITS UI or by setting up relevant advices and alerts (e.g. by making use of the AIF unsolicited advices, and FSS notifications and alerts);
      • can promptly undertake necessary actions relating to their ESA (including executing, authorising and settling transactions, or resetting passwords depending on the staff member’s role) and respond in a timely manner to incidents; and
      • are contactable by the RITS Help Desk during RITS operating hours.

    RITS operating hours

    • RITS staff must be available until the close of the Settlement Close Session. Members participating in the 9am Settlement must have these staff available in the Morning Session to enable timely funding of any 9am debit amounts.
    • Evening Agreed Members must ensure that sufficient staff are available until all settlements are completed in the Evening Settlement Session. Members must notify the Reserve Bank of alternate contact arrangements if regular contact numbers will be unattended.
    • All Members with an outstanding RBA Repo who have not made arrangements with the Reserve Bank Dealing Room for taking the RBA Repo overnight must have front and back office staff available until the RBA Repo is reversed.

    eftpos and Mastercard batches

    • Participants in the eftpos and Mastercard batches must actively monitor batch transactions until settlement.

    Fast Settlement Service

    • Staff must be available to respond to operational incidents and take appropriate measures to conserve liquidity outside of Austraclear opening hours and cash market hours.

    Reservation batches

    • Liquidity management staff must be available to monitor property reservation batch activity until the Member’s last batches have settled.

    Compliance

    • Members may be required to attest compliance with the Bank’s staffing requirements as part of the annual self-certification against the Business Continuity and Security Standards for RITS Members.