== Context

A global investment bank based in London, New York and Singapore trades (buys and sells) financial products with other banks (counterparties). When share prices on the stock markets move up or down, the bank either makes money or loses it. At the end of the working day, the bank needs to gain a view of how much risk they are exposed to (e.g. of losing money) by running some calculations on the data held about their trades. The bank has an existing Trade Data System (TDS) and Reference Data System (RDS) but need a new Risk System.

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=== Trade Data System

The Trade Data System maintains a store of all trades made by the bank. It is already configured to generate a file-based XML export of trade data at the close of business (5pm) in New York. The export includes the following information for every trade made by the bank:

* Trade ID
* Date
* Current trade value in US dollars
* Counterparty ID

=== Reference Data System

The Reference Data System maintains all of the reference data needed by the bank. This includes information about counterparties; each of which represents an individual, a bank, etc. A file-based XML export is also available and includes basic information about each counterparty. A new organisation-wide reference data system is due for completion in the next 3 months, with the current system eventually being decommissioned.