XBRL US has finalized its corporate actions taxonomy, which is used by issuers to report corporate actions announcements and events.
The taxonomy is a collection of data tags that are aligned with elements of the ISO 20022 global corporate actions standard. It was developed as part of the Issuer to Investor: Corporate Actions initiative, a collaborative industry effort sponsored by DTCC, SWIFT and XBRL US that uses standards to streamline the communication between issuers and investors.
The Corporate Actions Taxonomy has 550 base elements covering 94 types of corporate action events.
Having issuers electronically tag corporate actions data in XBRL allows it to be delivered straight from the issuer to the investor without rekeying or interpretation through multiple interfaces, and the standard has been largely praised by the issuers and investors. For more on the use of XBRL for corporate actions, see XBRL: Patch or Panacea, Global Custodian, Fall 2010.
“The goal all along has been to make it easy and inexpensive for issuers to identify and tag key data as they prepare documents for a corporate action,” says Donald F. Donahue, president and CEO of DTCC. “Completion of the corporate actions taxonomy represents a significant milestone in this undertaking and moves us a step closer to straight-through-processing. As we move ahead on this initiative, we look forward to demonstrating how XBRL helps reduce risk, boost efficiencies and cut cost in corporate actions processing.”
Citi is working with XBRL US on a pilot program to demonstrate the costs and benefits of using XBRL in the corporate actions processing of dividend payment announcements for American Depositary Receipts (ADRs). The pilot includes a handful of custodians and is expected to run through November.
“Citi’s participation in the XBRL US pilot program is just part of our commitment to industry-leading technology, says Alan Smith, managing director of Citi Securities and Fund Services. XBRL for Corporate Actions provides a streamlined process that can help mitigate operational risk while reducing costs, and we feel that this can be a very valuable tool for our clients.”
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