Euroclear is to introduce a new set of ISO 200022-compliant messages for the exchange of corporate actions information and instructions between central securities depositories and issuer-appointed agents,
Euroclear says the new message standard will be introduced in 2010, after receiving approval from the ISO 20022 registration bodies for the protocol. The depository says this is the first set of approved ISO 20022 messages developed by an organisation operating in the securities industry other than the interbank co-operative Swift.
Each day, the Euroclear international and national CSDs manage more than 3000 corporate actions, process more than 2,500 corporate action instructions from clients and distribute around 77,000 cash or securities proceeds.
However, the market has been hampered by a lack of automation and the widespread use of paper-based and proprietary messages. Euroclear says the introduction of an approved common standard will introduce straight-through processing at a critical point in the transaction processing chain, making it possible for intermediaries and end investors to have faster access to relevant data when managing their portfolios.
Edwin De Pauw, director and head of market harmonisation and communication at Euroclear, comments: "Moving to ISO 20022 standards for corporate action communications between CSDs and issuer agents is in line with the Group of Thirty and Giovannini Group recommendations covering Barriers 1 and 3. 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."