Issuers Won’t Adopt Standards Without a Solid Business Case and Market-wide Agreement, Says Computershare’s Sarkar
The issuer community is wary of adopting new standards without a solid business case and before the rest of the industry has agreed on which standard is best, said Naz Sarkar, CEO of issuer agent firm Computershare Investor Services, at this month’s CorpActions 2011 conference. Sarkar defended the position of issuers, who are frequently criticised...
Asia is Much Further Ahead in Terms of Corporate Actions Standardisation Than the Middle East and Africa, Says StanChart’s Davies
The Asia Pacific region has come a long way over the last few years in terms of corporate actions standardisation and best practice adoption, according to Mark Davies, head of investors and intermediaries at Standard Chartered Bank in Europe. Although it is often lumped in with markets such as the Middle East and Africa, the...
S&P Provide More Data for US Securities
S&P Valuation and Risk Strategies announced the addition of a new intra-day pricing snapshot for US taxable securities. Delivered via Standard & Poor’s Securities Evaluations (SPSE), a leading provider of independent evaluations, the new intra-day report – delivered at 12:30 PM ET daily – provides a real-time snapshot of market-derived pricing for over 1.5 million...
Panellists Note the Lack of a Global Initiative for Proxy Voting Standardisation
There may be a number of national initiatives focused on standardising proxy voting practices in individual countries, but there are no global efforts to harmonise these practices across borders, agreed panellists at this month’s CorpActions 2011 conference in London. Justin Chapman, global head of process management at Northern Trust, suggested that some engagement at an...
ISDA Publishes 2011 Equity Derivatives Definitions
The International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. (ISDA) announced today the publication of the 2011 ISDA Equity Derivatives Definitions. The Definitions represent a key development in the ongoing industry initiative to increase standardization and automation and further reduce risk across over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives markets. The Definitions, published on July 8, include a Main Book and...
Sifma Led Industry Coalition Backs DTCC/Swift as Facilities Manager and Issuer for ISO LEI, ANNA for Support Role
It’s official, the frontrunners in the bid to act as issuer and facilities manager for the incoming legal entity identifier (LEI), Swift and the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC), have received the backing of the 17 strong Sifma led coalition of industry associations and firms (some interesting dynamics in the makeup of the group...
SWIFT BICPlusIBAN Directory Helps Corporates Get SEPA-Ready
At the end of 2012, it will become mandatory under SEPA to use IBANs and BICs to identify the parties to payments transactions. Corporates still using old-style account numbers in their payments messages must have migrated to the new codes by that time. This means that in very short order corporates need to validate the...
Front Office Increasingly Concerned with Corporate Actions Data Quality, Says Bloomberg’s Haddock
The front office is increasingly concerned with the quality and timeliness of corporate actions data as it assists in the identification of prime trading opportunities and risks, according to Joseph Haddock, manager at data giant Bloomberg. Speaking at this week’s CorpActions 2011 conference, Haddock noted that increasing volume of corporate actions data that is being...
ECB Might be Agnostic About How Securities Settlement Harmonisation Happens, But Standards Are Foundation
The European Central Bank (ECB) might be keen for harmonisation across the European securities settlement environment, but it is not fussy about how it gets there, said Hugh Simpson, senior advisor to the central bank from Bourse Consult at this week’s CorpActions 2011 conference in London. One important prerequisite to harmonisation is (whether it be...
Berlanger Heads to Deutsche Bank, Bookheim Surfaces in Consultancy Role at Citi
Last week, Reference Data Review revealed that director in charge of data quality at Citi, Geert Berlanger was departing after five years with the firm. This week we can reveal he is headed to Deutsche Bank to take up the role of programme director for client business services, responsible for functions such as client onboarding. Citi, however,...