Omgeo, the global standard for post-trade efficiency, today announced that Omgeo ALERT, the world’s largest and most compliant web-based global database for the maintenance and communication of standing settlement and account instructions (SSI), has experienced unprecedented client growth going into 2011 with over 1,700 clients globally.
As a result of continued market turbulence and regulatory uncertainty, operational risk management and compliance with market standards remain key priorities for the global financial community. By automating manual, error-prone processes and ensuring compliance with Securities Market Practice Group (SMPG) local market standards worldwide, Omgeo ALERT helps firms to mitigate operational risk, accelerate the trade life cycle and ensure their trades are ready for settlement leveraging SSI data that is accurate and compliant.
Today, Omgeo ALERT contains data for more than 500,000 funds and manages about 5 million settlement instructions. On average, brokers retrieve 40,000 counterparty account instructions per day. Initially an equities-only solution, Omgeo ALERT now offers expanded asset class coverage, including fixed income, exchange traded and OTC derivatives, as well as foreign exchange instruments.
Launched three decades ago, Omgeo ALERT was created as a result of the community’s demand for a solution that US securities traders could adopt to transmit settlement instructions electronically to their trading counterparts. The buy-side was instrumental in turning Omgeo ALERT, the first post-trade SSI solution on the market, into a market standard SSI database and, as the industry became more automated, Omgeo ALERT responded with complementary functionalities.
Steve Matthews, COO of Omgeo, comments: “Omgeo ALERT’s growth over the past several decades demonstrates its invaluable benefit to the global marketplace. We remain committed to maintaining ALERT to the highest standards while ensuring that all data stored within ALERT is complete and accurate. Our Quality Data Initiative (QDI) is an on-going effort, staffed with full time associates, where the primary focus is on ensuring ALERT data quality.”
Peter Johnston, managing director at Goldman Sachs, says: “Compliance with local market standards and regulatory initiatives is more important than ever in today’s changing environment. Accurate ALERT SSI data to comply with these local market standards and regulatory initiatives is a critical component for ensuring local settlement across the globe.”
Simon Haggerty, head of equities operations and securities utility at UBS, adds: “Using Omgeo ALERT helps us to efficiently service our clients while also enabling us to manage and reduce operational risk. With added coverage across multiple asset classes and a commitment to data quality, Omgeo ALERT solidifies its crucial role in the marketplace.”
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