Corporate Actions in 2021

An industry perspctive

Quantifying an age-old problem

Anecdotal evidence of data-driven errors and near-misses abounds in nearly every corporate actions team around the world.

And yet the problems persist.

We are delighted to support this innovative research campaign and hope that the statistical insights it contains can form the basis of a new, transparent case for change across our industry. Thanks to this research, we can now point to clearly defined issues and we can size their impact.

The time is now to re-shape the processes that have held our industry back for so long.

Helping to solve one of the industry's most critical challenges

The management of corporate actions remains very much the outlier in any financial services operation. It uniquely introduces variable and often unpredictable risk, which can often lead to losses or high levels of client dissatisfaction. The industry has attempted to make large strides in managing, not eradicating, this risk. However, clients are also rightly and increasingly demanding closer involvement in the management and governance of corporate action events, particularly in a tightening regulatory environment. Needless to say, the ability to generate alpha in low interest rate environments is a continued priority. That makes time the enemy as you work to prepare, publish and gather the details of elections before presenting them back to the market. Focusing on these concerns is critical to not only the industry response but also the sophistication and richness of technology solutions. As a solution provider itself, FIS is committed to finding new ways of solving the resulting operational challenges for its clients. With thought leadership at the core of our products and services, we need to truly understand where the pinch points are in corporate action processing and data management. Furthermore, as active members of the International Securities Services Association (ISSA), the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) and the International Securities Association for Institutional Trade Communication (ISITC), we are also well positioned to vocalise and steer the industry on our clients’ behalf. In partnership with industry colleagues, this survey has allowed its respondents to highlight key, and often surprising, areas that warrant further assessment and remediation – either through technology solutions or industry adjustment. We hope the findings make interesting and inspiring reading.

Addressing market-wide data challenges together

For the few of you who may not be familiar with the International Securities Services Association (ISSA), it is a Swiss-domiciled association that supports the securities services industry. Our members include CSDs, custodians, technology companies and other firms who are actively involved in all aspects of the securities services value chain.

Through our Working Groups, ISSA looks to positively change the industry through the development and delivery of forward-looking solutions. One key area of focus for ISSA’s Asset Servicing Working Group during 2021 has been the topic of data sourcing.

Seen by many ISSA members as an area which would benefit from change, ISSA is delighted to collaborate with the ValueExchange and partners on this important corporate action data survey.

Thank you to all of you – both at ISSA and the other partners – who contributed to completing this survey and therefore providing our Asset Servicing Working Group with key information that will be needed to address the challenges in the data sourcing space.

For further information on what ISSA plans to do with this information, please see the Where Next section of this report.