New York, June 13, 2012 ─ The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and Swift, the financial messaging provider for more than 10,000 financial institutions and corporations in 210 countries, today announced that Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH) has become the first financial institution to go live on the new corporate actions real-time messaging solution.
The new solution, which DTCC launched late last year for corporate actions announcements, is part of a broader initiative by DTCC to reengineer its corporate actions platform and adopt the global ISO 20022 standard as part of the core service offering to its participants.
DTCC is offering its solution with a range of new subscription options. BBH has been an active pilot member, and has provided strategic feedback to help establish a global standard throughout the testing and validation process. Based upon the progress during the pilot, BBH implemented reorganization announcements and will transition the remaining announcement types during future phases. Reorganization announcement processing is very interactive and requires a high level of interpretation. The move from using proprietary files to implementing ISO 20022 real-time standard messaging will offer an opportunity to reduce interpretational risk. It will also improve timeliness and accuracy of corporate action information.
“This is a significant milestone in our journey to improve the client experience. ISO 20022 is a critical building block, which can reduce risk and streamline processing,” said Cira Neira, Senior Vice President, Head of Corporate Actions, Brown Brothers Harriman. “The level of granularity and standardization in the new messages enhances transparency and adherence to market practice. This will give asset managers more time to make the investment decisions required for these event types,” said Sonda Pimental, Vice President, Brown Brothers Harriman and Co-chair of the ISITC Corporate Actions Working Group.
“Today’s announcement further demonstrates our dedication to fostering increased automation and transparency for U.S. corporate actions announcements,” said Dan Thieke, Managing Director, Asset Services, DTCC. “By moving to one global messaging standard, BBH will process corporate actions more efficiently for clients by utilizing their existing infrastructure investments in DTCC and Swift.”
“The corporate actions pilot program is yet another way we are working with the industry to develop a common set of standards and a shared set of solutions,” Chris Church, Swift’s Chief Executive Americas and Global Head of Securities said. “BBH is taking an important first step by eliminating previously manual tasks, such as re-keying and exception processing for corporate action notifications.”
The announcement is the latest milestone achieved during the Issuer to Investor: Corporate Actions initiative, which was launched in May 2009 to improve the processing of corporate actions data in the U.S. BBH was the first financial institution to join the ISO 20022 corporate actions messaging pilot program in 2010. There are other pilot firms close to implementation as well.
About DTCC
Through operating facilities and data centers around the world, DTCC and its subsidiary companies automate, centralize and standardize the post-trade processing of financial transactions for thousands of institutions worldwide. With more than 40 years of experience, DTCC is the premier post-trade infrastructure for the global financial markets, simplifying the complexities of clearance, settlement, asset servicing, global data management and information services for equities, corporate and municipal bonds, government and mortgage-backed securities, derivatives, money market instruments, syndicated loans, mutual funds, alternative investment products, and insurance transactions. In 2011, DTCC processed securities transactions valued at approximately US$1.7 quadrillion. Its depository provides custody and asset servicing for securities issues from 122 countries and territories valued at US$39.5 trillion. DTCC’s global OTC derivatives trade repositories hold records on more than US$500 trillion in gross notional value on transactions across multiple asset classes globally. For more information, visit www.dtcc.com.
About Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.
BBH is a privately held financial institution that has been a thought leader and solutions provider for nearly 200 years. The firm serves the most discriminating and sophisticated individuals and institutions in its five business lines: Corporate Banking, Investment Management, Investor Services, M&A Advisory and Wealth Management. BBH’s culture of accountability fosters deep and lasting relationships built on commitment, adaptability and trust. The company is independent, selective and specialized by design.
BBH’s Investor Services business provides cross border custody, accounting, administration, and execution services in close to 100 markets for many of the world’s leading asset managers and financial institutions. With approximately $3.2 trillion in assets under custody and administration1, BBH is consistently ranked among the world's top global custodians, asset administrators, foreign exchange, and securities lending providers2.
BBH operates a global business with seventeen locations, including Beijing, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Denver, Dublin, Grand Cayman, Hong Kong, Kraków, London, Luxembourg, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, Tokyo, Wilmington and Zürich.
For more information about Brown Brothers Harriman’s integrated and differentiated approach, please visit www.bbh.com.
About Swift
Swift is a member-owned cooperative that provides the communications platform, products and services to connect more than 10,000 financial institutions and corporations in more than 210 countries. Swift enables its users to exchange automated, standardised financial information securely and reliably, thereby lowering costs, reducing operational risk and eliminating operational inefficiencies. Swift also brings the financial community together to work collaboratively to shape market practice, define standards and debate issues of mutual interest.
For more information, please refer to our website, www.swift.com/, or contact our PR agency:
Swift
Ashley Schmidt
Tel: 212 455 1942
ashley.schmidt@swift.com
Intermarket Communications
Eric Hazard
Tel: 212 754 5610
ehazard@intermarket.com
