EDI Adds Shareholder Circulars, Says “No Fall-Out” From Decision to Compete Head-On with LSE

Reference and corporate actions data provider Exchange Data International (EDI) has fulfilled a commitment made earlier this year to offer online access to shareholder circulars (Reference Data Review, March 2007).

An enhancement to its direct sourced UK corporate actions database WinCAB2, the web-based service enables more timely, easier and cheaper access to these documents, which provide information such as nominee and overseas restrictions and conversation and redemption formulae, and which historically have had to be sourced in hard copy by firms, according to Jonathan Bloch, CEO and founder of EDI. The vendor has established direct links with issuer companies to ensure it receives the documents on a timely basis, he adds.

This development follows EDI’s decision to compete head to head with the London Stock Exchange by sourcing its own corporate actions data – a move it positioned as a direct response to data pricing and distribution policy changes by the LSE. As the only vendor that was re-vending the LSE’s Stock Situation Notices (SSNs) EDI says it was uniquely affected by the changes.

EDI set out to not only avoid loss of revenue by generating its own corporate actions data, but to provide a superior service, and the addition of shareholder circulars linked to corporate actions was pitched as a key element of this added value. “This is the first time the shareholder circular has been linked with the corporate action information, meaning clients get both the summary and the underlying documentation,” Bloch says. “Clients who subscribe to our web service for corporate actions can go on to the web site and also see the relevant documents in full.” The service is being trialled by five clients, he adds.

Bloch says there has been “no fall-out” following its decision to compete directly with the LSE – adding that clients have welcomed the creation of competition in the UK corporate actions space. EDI will announce further service enhancements around corporate actions and fixed income in the new year, he says.