Back office

1. Corporate treasury.

The part of the treasury organisation that administers and supports the trading activities of the treasury front office.

The back office’s main functions are to process, confirm, verify, settle, reconcile and record financial market transactions.

The back office is also responsible for ensuring that the organisation’s treasury management policy and controls are followed, as well as ensuring general compliance with rules and regulations.

In a more general sense, the term refers to all administrative functions that support an organisation and includes areas such as payroll and expenses, accounts payable, accounts receivable and accounting.

2.

The parts of an organisation which administer and support its customer-facing activities ('front office').

Back office activities include administration, record-keeping, payments and receipts, and accounting.

Segregation of duties - dealing, settlement and reporting

“The front office does the deal, but doesn’t settle the money.

The back office settles the money, but doesn’t do the deal.

Historically, the middle office is a control function that does the reporting and ensures that system controls are enforced."

Naresh Aggarwal, associate policy and technical director, Association of Corporate Treasurers, May 2022.

See also

• Deal
• Front office
• Middle office
• Reporting
• Segregation of duties
• Settlement
• System and network controls
• Treasury organisation

Other resource

Masterclass: Segregation of duties, Sarah Boyce, The Treasurer