BNY Mellon has gone live with DTCCs new corporate actions messaging solution over the SWIFT network following pilot testing since last year. The solution is part of DTCCs initiative to reengineer its corporate actions platform utilizing ISO 20022.
The custodian has piloted the program for corporate actions announcements for its depositary receipts since last year. It is now implementing mandatory corporate event announcements with eventual plans to transition the remaining event types.
DTCC says the move from using proprietary files to the standardized, real-time ISO 20022 eradicates the need for manual tasks, reduces risk and increases the accuracy of corporate action information.
By going live with corporate actions and the ISO 20022 messaging standard, we are enhancing our client experience, reducing risk, and enabling greater straight through processing, says Calvin Holmquist, executive vice president and head of Global Securities Operations at BNY Mellon.
It is the latest development from the Issuer to Investor: Corporate Actions initiative, launched in May 2009 as a partnership between DTCC, SWIFT and XBRL US to improve corporate actions processing. The concept is to utilize XML-based XBRL tags to highlight important event data at the point of issuance, which would reduce the reliance on downstream data scrubbing as key information is noted at the outset.
For more on the XBRL initiative, see XBRL: Patch or panacea?Global Custodian, Winter 2010.
The new messages will allow for more transparency and standardization, reducing time to market and giving clients more time to make informed investment decisions, says Stephanie Keppenne, BNY Mellon managing director and head of Core Custody Product Management.
Susan Cosgrove, managing director and general manager for Settlement and Asset Services at DTCC, says BNY Mellons adoption of the corporate actions messaging solution represents a milestone for corporate actions in the U.S. With the industry moving toward one global messaging standard, multiple financial institutions will be able to take advantage of their current infrastructure to process corporate actions using the DTCC or SWIFT network, Cosgrove says. This will increase automation and transparency, reduce risk and boost efficiency and return on investment.
Chris Church, CEO for the Americas and global head of Securities at SWIFT, adds: By eliminating manual tasks in corporate actions, BNY Mellon is making strides toward reducing their operational risk and improving automation in corporate action announcement processing.
(CG)