Xcitek, which provides market data, corporate actions software and consulting services, has added to its repertoire a web-based information management service which aims to allow financial institutions to identify, track and collect from positions held by clients in securities class actions.
Xcitek Class Actions brings together Xcitek’s database of securities class actions, daily case updates and web-based software, to enable investors to identify and track relevant cases. Watchlists and portfolios can be created to drive user-defined reporting including email alerts, upcoming filing deadlines, and daily lists of new or updated cases. The service includes information and features to assist in the process of claiming and collecting funds to which the investor may be entitled.
“The management of securities class actions is a tremendous burden for financial institutions responsible for tracking and collecting funds on behalf of their clients,” says Charles W. Price, Senior Vice President at Xcitek. “We are extending our expertise in corporate actions to deliver an end-to-end data solution to help with this burden, which has been exacerbated by the absence of notification responsibility in this category of corporate events.”
According to recent research on securities class actions, the number of securities class action cases has increased in the post-Sarbanes-Oxley environment while as many as 50% of investors who are entitled to claim securities class action funds fail to do so. Forty mutual funds were sued in January 2005 for failure to participate and collect on behalf of shareholders, increasing the stakes for firms who may have a fiduciary obligation to process securities class actions.
The rollout of Xcitek Class Actions will be followed by a second phase – the introduction of a new XSP class action module – to address full back-office automation of the class action data. This new module will leverage the existing functionality of XSP to manage the class action lifecycle for complete end-to-end processing.