The U.S. Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has launched a pilot programme with 20 broker/dealers and custodian banks for a new web-based system that automates the creation, delivery and tracking of corporate actions liability notices. The snappily titled Smart/Track for Corporate Actions Liability Notification Service will be in a pilot phase until the end of January 2005, and will then enter full production on February 1.
There are estimated to be over 15,000 voluntary corporate actions liability notices sent out each month. According to Margaret Koontz, vice president of DTCC product management and development, “Corporate actions liability notices have been a paper-intensive, time-consuming, manual process without any standardization in either the terminology or communication process itself. The new notification system eliminates the manual process”.
Firms involved in the pilot include Fimat USA, Fortis Securities, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, National Financail Services, RBC Dain Rauscher, Stephens, and Wells Fargo.
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