RE: [soac-newgtldapsup-wg] continuity of operations funding requirement

["Tijani BEN JEMAA" <tijani.benjemaa@xxxxxxxx>]

Richard,

 

I still think that 6 months is a sufficient period, taking into account the
failover plan prevision of 1 to 3 months.

 

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Tijani BEN JEMAA

Directeur exécutif

Fédération Méditerranéenne des Associations d'Internet

Phone : + 216 70 825 231

Mobile : + 216 98 330 114

Fax     : + 216 70 825 231

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De : owner-soac-newgtldapsup-wg@xxxxxxxxx
[mailto:owner-soac-newgtldapsup-wg@xxxxxxxxx] De la part de Richard Tindal
Envoyé : jeudi 12 août 2010 18:27
À : soac-newgtldapsup-wg@xxxxxxxxx
Objet : Re: [soac-newgtldapsup-wg] continuity of operations funding
requirement

 

 

The actual Q50 on page 107 provides a fairly detailed explanation of the
Continuity Instrument.  The amount does have to be designated in US dollars
but it doesn't have to be issued by a US bank: 

 

"The LOC must be issued by a reputable financial institution insured at the
highest level in its jurisdiction. This may include a bank or insurance
company with a strong international reputation that has a strong credit
rating issued by a third party rating agency such as Standard & Poor’s (AA
or above), Moody’s (Aa or above), or A.M. Best (A-X or above)."

 

I think the main point is that reducing the requirement from 3 years to,
say, 2 years would provide important cost savings to applicants while still
protecting registrants.

 

RT

 

 

 

On Aug 12, 2010, at 9:49 AM, Eric Brunner-Williams wrote:





Hi Richard,
On 8/12/10 11:10 AM, Richard Tindal wrote:




My understanding of the Financial Continuity Instrument is an amount

of cash, or an irrevocable cash instrument, which the registry places

under the control of ICANN.


The term is defined in the evaluation criteria, p94 of 312 in the
draft-rfp-clean-28may10-en.pdf, para 2, which reads:

"In the Continuity question in the financial section (see Question #50), up
to 3 points are awarded if an applicant provides, at the application stage,
a financial instrument that will guarantee ongoing registry operations in
the event of a business failure. This extra point can serve to guarantee
passing the financial criteria for applicants who score the minimum passing
score for each of the individual criteria. The purpose of this weighting is
to reward applicants who make early arrangements for the protection of
registrants and to accept relatively riskier business plans where
registrants are protected."

What is being provided, and where, is not defined.

Assume an application by a cooperative located in Korea for an IDN string
related to agriculture and rural food marketing which creates
a financial instrument denominated in KRW at the (Korean) National
Agricultural Cooperative Federation, NH Bank [1].

The proposed facilities-based registry operation is in Korea, and the
proposed operating costs, the costs that are the actual expense to be
continued by some instrument, are proposed to all be paid in KRW to Korean
accounts, individual (staff) and corporate (vendor).

I think it is difficult to conclude that the financial instrument only meets
the continuity purpose if it is in dollars in a bank in Los Angeles.

At p186 of 312 there is a prior to or concurrent with the execution of the
registry agreement reference, and the definition refers back to the quoted
text above, from p94.

At p200 there is "... Registry Operator ... has duly executed and delivered
to ICANN an instrument that secures the funds required to perform registry
functions for the TLD in the event of the termination or expiration ..."
Here the language addresses the instrument, what the currency
instrumentalized is, and what institution the instrument is drawn upon, is
undefined.

That's all we know from draft-rfp-clean-28may10-en.pdf.

Eric

[1] http://www.nonghyup.com/Main/main.aspx