ALERT: Data Validation Business, Syntax, and Semantic Rules

A business rule states whether a field is mandatory or not allowed and any conditions. ALERT validates a field against a business rule by determining if the condition is present; if it is, ALERT ensures that the field either has a value or is empty, as appropriate.

The conditions in a business rule can include either or both of the following:

• The presence and validity of a related data field in the data set being revised; for example, a specific value, empty, or not empty.
• A specific combination of values, such as country, security, and method.

Some examples of business rules are:

• If Local Agent BIC and Sub Agent Name 1 are empty, then ID 1 is mandatory.
• If Corresp BIC has a value and Relationship=C, then Corresp Security A/C # is not allowed.

Syntax rules validate the format of field values and ensure that details such as data type and field length are correct. All fields have a default syntax rule for field length, and many fields receive additional syntax validation. If the value meets the syntax specification, the field passes validation; otherwise, it fails and ALERT returns an error.

An example of syntax checking is the validation of a settlement instruction that requires a Place of Settlement (PSET) BIC. ALERT ensures that the field value consists of either 8 or 11 contiguous characters structured as follows:

• Characters 1-4: a client code
• Characters 5-6: an ISO country code
• Characters 7-8: a location code
• Characters 9-11: an optional branch code

If the field value meets these specifications, it passes syntax validation.\

Semantic rules check whether field values are valid. The ALERT host validates a field against a semantic rule by checking its value against a defined list of values. If the field value is on the list, the field passes validation; otherwise, it fails, and ALERT returns an error.

An example of semantic checking is the validation of a settlement instruction field that requires a BIC. ALERT checks the field value against a current BIC directory to ensure that it exists in the directory.

Another example is the semantic validation of the ID 1, ID 2, and ID 3 fields when Method=DTC. In this case, the ID 1, ID 2, and ID 3 fields must contain particular values in the DTCC Master ID file.