contracts / CP_PROGRAM_ID

# CP_PROGRAM_ID

`val CP_PROGRAM_ID: CommercialPaper`

This is an ultra-trivial implementation of commercial paper, which is essentially a simpler version of a corporate bond. It can be seen as a company-specific currency. A company issues CP with a particular face value, say $100, but sells it for less, say $90. The paper can be redeemed for cash at a given date in the future. Thus this example would have a 10% interest rate with a single repayment. Commercial paper is often rolled over (the maturity date is adjusted as if the paper was redeemed and immediately repurchased, but without having to front the cash).

This contract is not intended to realistically model CP. It is here only to act as a next step up above cash in the prototyping phase. It is thus very incomplete.

Open issues:

- In this model, you cannot merge or split CP. Can you do this normally? We could model CP as a specialised form of cash, or reuse some of the cash code? Waiting on response from Ayoub and Rajar about whether CP can always be split/merged or only in secondary markets. Even if current systems cant do this, would it be a desirable feature to have anyway?

- The funding steps of CP is totally ignored in this model.

- No attention is paid to the existing roles of custodians, funding banks, etc.

- There are regional variations on the CP concept, for instance, American CP requires a special "CUSIP number" which may need to be tracked. That, in turn, requires validation logic (there is a bean validator that knows how to do this in the Apache BVal project).