FX Benchmark Rates is designed for Bank of America’s commercial, corporate, and institutional customers to place purchase and sell orders for foreign exchange at specified times using blind benchmark rates. You can enter an order request, view historical rates, search for orders, or view order deals, depending on your user permissions. FX Benchmark is accessed through the Bank of America Capital Markets web site.

This document is organized into the following areas:

Logging in
Logging out
Entering an order request
Searching for order requests
Canceling an order
Viewing historical data

First Visit

On your first visit to the Capital Market site you will be directed to the Terms and Conditions screen page. You will either accept or decline the conditions in order proceed. In order to get to the log in page you need to accept the Terms and Conditions. Once you do that, the next page you will see is the Log in page for the Global Markets website.

Logging in

The first time you log into the GMG web site and the FX BENCHMARK RATES application , you are required to change your default password. You must also change your password if it has to be reset by Technical Support. See “Changing your password” for details.

How to Log In:

Access the GMG web site at http://gmg.bankofamerica.com. The Capital Markets Overview page opens where you log in. Your log in refreshes the page and you see your name and the menu for My Alerts, Change Password, Contact Us and Log Out.

From the menu at the left, click The Trading Floor > FX Benchmark Rates . The FX Benchmark Rates main menu page opens. The Trading system.

For CounterParty Long name click Lookup. Enter your user name and password and click Log in. The GMG main page opens.

Changing your password

The first time you log into the GMG web site, you are required to change your assigned default password. You are assigned a default password as a new GMG web site user or if Technical Support resets your password. You can also change an existing GMG password.

The first time you log into the FX BENCHMARK RATES application , you use an assigned default password. You are prompted after your initial login to change this password. The guidelines below apply to all GMG and FX BENCHMARK RATES passwords. Although not required, it is suggested that you select the same password for both GMG and FX BENCHMARK RATES.

To change password
1. Click on the Change Password link to open the Change Password page.

GMG password guidelines

The following guidelines apply to all GMG and FX BENCHMARK RATES passwords:

To change an assigned default GMG password:

On the GMG login page, enter your user name and default password. The Change password screen opens, as shown below.

To change an existing GMG password:

After you have completed the overall login you can navigate to the Benchmark Rates Home page. There you will login for Benchmark Rates. You should click on the Foreign Exchange Tab at the top of the Overview page and select Benchmark Rates from the drop menu.

Changing your FX Benchmark Rates password

New users of the FX Benchmark Rates system are assigned a default password. You are prompted after your initial login to change this password. Although not required, it is suggested that you select the same password for both GMG and FX Benchmark Rates .

Logging out of FX Benchmark Rates

When you are finished using the FX Benchmark Rates System, you must log out. Logging out ends your current trading session but does not close the FX BENCHMARK RATES application window on your desktop. This enables you to initiate another trading session without logging in again to the Bank of America GMG web site or FX BENCHMARK RATES home page. The system remains available to you for 30 minutes. If you do not initiate any trading activity within 30 minutes, the system times out and you must reenter your password. Logging out prevents unauthorized use of the system.

Click Logout at the top left of the screen. A pop-up window displays, asking you to confirm your choice.

Click Yes. You are logged out of the system. The FX BENCHMARK RATES application window remains open on your desktop until you close the Attention window.

Entering an order request

How to enter an order request. Include how to upload a file of order requests.

Client Order Request

This screen page lets View & Order Entry and View, Order Entry and Cancel clients enter order requests . The system validates requests after submitting them. This page displays a table where you can setup order requests. For each column, choose from the drop lists and enter parameters ; then submit your request. You can clear or edit by clicking on the Clear button . The date adjusts depending on the time , selected from the drop list.

The Account column lists CounterParties you are permissioned for in your BR profile . If permissioned for View Only you will only see your counterparty, if permissioned for more you will see a drop list to select from.

How to Submit a Client Order Request :

Action: Click on the drop list to select action. Tab to the order Currency field.

Currency: Click on the drop list to select currency . Tab to the Amount field.

Amount: Type in the amount to trade. Tab to the Contra field.

Contra: From the drop list select the contra currency

Click on the drop list to select Account . Tab to the Mnemonic field and enter the Mnemonic code.

Click the Submit Request button . This opens the order confirmation page.

To restart click on the Clear button to clear the fields .

Client Order Request Error

This screen lets clients with View & Order Entry and View, Order Entry and Cancel permissions to correct errors on order request. All orders display, but those with error/s are highlighted. An error message details the particular messages displays with the error block in the upper right-hand corner. If the order was cancelled, those details display in a Deal Status box on the right side.

Note. Each field in the row must be filled in. If they are not complete you will get error messages .

How to Correct an Order Request Error :

Check the highlighted error items and make whatever changes are needed.

Tab through all the fields for that order and enter your changes.

Click on the Submit Request button . This begins the validation and submission of orders to the database. If there are no errors you will get a confirmation message.

Reviewing all Client’s Deals (Deal List)

This screen page displays a list of orders that match a predefined or user-entered search . It shows ID, date, time , value date, amount, buy/sell, contra currency , contra amount, dealt rate and status of each order listed. Cancellation applies only to orders still in a received state. You may clear, download to CSV and cancel the selected orders.

Note: If you are not permissioned for cancellations the Cancel column will not appear on your screen.

How to use the Trade Deal List screen:

For users with cancel permissions: Click in the checkbox of the deal you want to cancel.

Then click on the Cancel Selected Orders button . The Cancel Confirmation screen opens.

To clear the screen and do another search : click the Clear button . The screen clears and you can start over again.

To download the data : click the Download to CSV button . The save file window opens.

To view a Trade Detail: click on the Order ID number, which is a hyperlink. The Trade Detail screen opens for that trade.

Canceling a Deal Using the Order (Deal) List

The Deal List comes up as a result of a search for a client deals. You can view all the deals for a given timeframe. From here you can set up cancellations for one or more deals shown on the list. If you change your mind, you can Clear the page and start over. As always, you can download to a CSV file. By clicking on the Cancel Selected Orders button you proceed to the Cancellation Confirmation screen. See that section for further instructions.

Note: Previously filled or cancelled deals will not have a checkbox under the selection column.

How to Cancel a Deal using the Order Deal List screen:

Click in the checkbox of the deal you want to cancel.

Then click on the Cancel Selected Orders button . The Cancel Confirmation screen opens. See that section for more instructions. -????

To clear the screen and change you selections: click the Clear button . The screen clears and you can start over again.

To download the data : Click the Download to CSV button . The save file window opens.

To view a Trade Detail: Click on the Order ID number. The Trade Detail screen opens for that trade.

Import/Upload File of Order Requests

This page lets View , Order Entry and View, Order Entry and Cancel users upload the a file of order requests by specifying filename, date and time . You can browse for your order request files and complete the upload by clicking the Import Orders Now button .

How To Import or Upload a file of Order Request:

Under Date populate each field with the day, month and year.
Tab to the Time field and select the entries from the drop list in each field.
Enter the File Name you want to upload or browse by clicking the browse button . The browse window opens for file selection.
When all fields are populated click on the Import Orders Now button to complete the upload. An Upload confirmation message opens.

Order File Upload Error

In case of an upload error you will see one or more of the following messages . Clear the screen page and start over.

Searching for order requests

You can search for orders in two ways:

Predefined search criteria. Allows you to search for all orders, or Filled, Received, Pending or Cancelled orders.
Advanced search. Allows you to search using a wide set of parameters to return more focused search results.

How to use the Order Detail screen:

From the Deal List page, Click on the Order ID . This opens the Order Detail page with the order status box on the right side.
To return to the Deals screen, click the Return to Search Results button . The Deals screen reopens.

Confirming a Cancellation

This page displays the results of orders checked for cancellation. You can confirm or rescind the cancellation by clicking on the YES or NO buttons . Each order ID shows the details of the order.

How to confirm a cancellation:

To Confirm: Click the ‘Yes’ button . The status changes to ‘cancelled’.
To Rescind: Click the ‘No’ and the order status. It remains in the ‘received state ’. Returns to the Deals List with a message.

Viewing historical data

You can search for and view a rate history. You can search using a single currency or multiple currencies, a range of dates, and one or more benchmark times. You can also download the search results as an Excel file.

When the View Historical Rates screen opens, by default it displays all currencies for the last global benchmark time when rates were received. For example, on the screen shown below.

To search for historical rates:

Select a currency from the Currency drop-down list. Shift-click to select a range of currencies, or control-click to select multiple non-consecutive currencies.

Select a date range from the From Date and To Date drop-down lists.

Select a time from the Time drop-down list. Shift-click to select a range of times, or control-click to select multiple, non-consecutive times.

Note. Click Clear to clear all fields and select different search criteria.

Click View. The Search Results screen opens, displaying historical rates that match your search criteria.

You can also download search results to an Excel spreadsheet.

To download search results to an Excel spreadsheet:

On the Search Results screen, click Download to CSV. An Excel spreadsheet opens in a separate browser window. You can also click Download to CSV at the bottom of the View Historical Rates screen instead of clicking View to download directly to Excel and bypass the Search Results screen........

Table of Contents

Overview