The last lifecycle event of a trade is, of course, its termination. It can be triggered for a variety of reasons. Whatever the reason may be, when a trade is terminated, it calls for settlements and documentation archival by Back Office. In addition, it may trigger public disclosures (in an aggregate form) by Finance, and incentive adjustments by Human Resources.
The common reasons for trade termination and the workflow it triggers are depicted in the figure below.
- Trade Maturity: When a trade or an option reaches maturity, it gets terminated, which is the most uneventful mode of trade termination.
- Option Exercises: If the bank or its counterparty exercises an option, it gets terminated. Exercises can take place any time during the lifetime of a trade, or only on specific dates, depending on the termsheet description of the product involved.
- Barrier Breaches: Barrier options (or knock-in and knock-out options) may breach the pre-defined barriers and may get terminated generating settlements or new trades.
- Target Triggers: Instruments that accumulate toward a target (such as range accruals or target redemption forwards) may get terminated when the target is reached.
- Trade Novation: Novation is the special process by which the trade counterparty changes. In effect, the original counterparty sells the the trade or the option to another one. When a novation happens, the original trade is terminated and a new one initiated with special characteristics.