Euroclear has received approval from the ISO 20022 registration bodies for the creation of a new set of ISO 20022 messages to be used throughout the global capital markets. According to the firm, it is the first set of approved ISO 20022 messages developed by an organisation operating in the securities industry other than Swift.
Starting in 2010, the new messages will be used by central securities depositories (CSDs) and issuer appointed agents to communicate both corporate action information and instructions between them, says Euroclear. Edwin De Pauw, director and head of market harmonisation and communication at Euroclear, reckons the move fits with the current requirements of the market: “Moving to ISO 20022 standards for corporate action communications between CSDs and issuer agents is in line with the Group of 30 and Giovannini Group recommendations covering Barriers 1 and 3.”
He continues: “It also supports the work done by the Barrier 3 Corporate Actions Joint Working Group in encouraging the adoption of ISO 20022 as the communications protocol to enable greater automation and more timely corporate action information flows.”
The CSD operator claims that the main benefit of using these standards is greater STP opportunities from issuers through to end investors, resulting in faster access to relevant corporate action information from which investors can take appropriate decisions on securities holdings.
Jean-Marie Eloy, manager of the ISO 20022 Registration Authority, comments: “Euroclear is supporting the convergence to ISO 20022 from two critical angles: helping to develop the ISO 20022 message portfolio which now includes 198 messages and acting as a catalyst for the adoption of ISO 20022 messages by an important industry segment. Gaining the support of global market infrastructures such as Euroclear is key to the success of the standard.”
