A Confirmation is a document describing a trade that has been executed, and is generally sent by the Seller to the Buyer to check the trade details, to be returned by the Buyer confirming that the trade details match the trade as they have recorded it

The Confirmation, or Confirm, process allows both parties to agree the trade details

Detail

The Confirmation process, and the form of the Confirmation document are defined in the Master Agreement, usually as an Appendix

The Confirmation match is the final stage of the contract between the two parties, without it the trade is not legally binding, as well as specifying the trade details the Confirmation also specified the Master Agreement under which the trade was executed

Confirmations are not normally produced for Exchange trades

Some parties produce and send Confirmations for both Buy and Sell trades

Confirmations must be signed by an authorized signatory in the Trading Organization

Confirmations are normally produced and signed electronically

Matching Confirms tends to be a manual process - systems of bar coding have been proposed

There are schemes that electronically confirm trades, generically known as ECM (Electronic Confirmation Matching)

These are generally point to point - but there is no reason not to utilize a centralized matching service