EUSD: Catch Up on Progress

As mentioned in our special focus supplement of the June edition of Reference Data Review, the EU Savings (Tax) Directive went into effect on July 1, with implications for paying agents on identifying instruments falling under the directive. Data vendors worked with user firms to help by providing tagged data within product modules. FT Interactive Data Europe said it had 30 customers taking its live data on the day of implementation, including Bank Gessellschaft Berlin International, KCB Bank NV Belgium, Northern Trust, and UBS Global Asset Management. Telekurs Financial, meanwhile, reports that over 220 clients signed up to receive the data via its Valordata Feed (VDF), and that they’ve had an encouraging amount of data from over 100 UK fund managers, as well as more in the Channel Islands and Ireland. This is a key factor in identifying and analysing funds falling under the directive but difficult to obtain given the lack of incentive for them to provide this information.