NEW YORK, June 1 /PRNewswire/ — XBRL US announced that one of the key findings at its May 28, 2009 conference on corporate actions was the need for public companies to understand the current process and to follow industry-accepted standards in how corporate actions data is created and distributed. The event was held in New York City and attended by over 100 individuals representing securities processors, investor relations officers, software companies and others. The conference was held jointly with Securities Operation Forum and in association with The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and SWIFT.
Thousands of corporate actions such as dividends, bond redemptions, rights offerings and mergers are announced each year by publicly traded companies in the U.S. alone. The financial community, including clearing houses, custodians, transfer agents, stock markets and investors, all follow an accepted ISO standard for corporate actions data but the public companies that issue these announcement do not. The processing of these announcements therefore is mostly handled manually, which results in errors and time-consuming inefficiencies, creating the potential for heavy losses and significant negative impact on investors.
“Issuers are simply not aware of the corporate actions process and therefore not inclined to change the way they distribute event announcements in the current environment,” said Jeff Morgan, President and CEO, NIRI. “They need education on what happens to their own announcements once they’re issued and how that impacts their most critical stakeholder, the investor. There also needs to be an examination of costs and liabilities throughout the corporate action process to ensure proposed changes to any system offers incentives to all for adopting a new processing standard.”
Other key findings from the conference included:
- The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), SWIFT and XBRL US announced that they will join forces to improve issuer investor communications through technology standards. Click here to read the statement of direction: http://www.dtcc.com/products/gca/improving_communications.php
- Opening session outlined the corporate actions process and highlighted the critical role of the issuer in improving that process. Click here to listen to audio webcast: http://xbrl.us/Events/Pages/corpact2009.aspx
- An initial digital dictionary describing a merger corporate actions was unveiled. Read more about the taxonomy and the corporate actions process in the conference handout: http://xbrl.us/pages/whitepaper_corpactions.aspx
- Sessions covered topics including standards around the world and using standards to enable straight-through-processing. Click here to see presentations: http://xbrl.us/Events/Pages/corpact2009.aspx
“This conference is the starting point in improving the way issuers, securities processors and investors consume corporate announcement information — enabling faster, better data for reduced cost and greater accuracy,” said David Hands, Director, Product Development, DTCC and Chair, XBRL US Corporate Actions Conference Advisory Committee. “We encourage individuals involved in this process to learn more and get involved in how we expect public company announcements will be handled in the future.”
For more information or to get involved in the process, contact Michelle Savage at 917/747/1714, michelle.savage@xbrl.us or Lynne Hasluck at 917/572/8264, lynne.hasluck@xbrl.us.
About XBRL US
XBRL US is the non-profit consortium for XML business reporting standards in the United States and is a jurisdiction of XBRL International. It represents the business information supply chain, including accounting firms, software companies, financial databases, financial printers and government agencies. Its mission is to support the implementation of XML business reporting standards through the development of taxonomies relevant for use by US public and private sectors, working with a goal of interoperability between sectors, and by promoting adoption of these taxonomies through the collaboration of all business reporting supply chain participants. XBRL US has developed taxonomies to support U.S. GAAP and common reporting practices, the Risk Return Summary in mutual fund prospectuses and the Schedule of Investments under contract with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Taxonomies can be found at http://xbrl.us/taxonomies/Pages/default.aspx.
Source: XBRL US, Inc.
Contact:Michelle Savage, +1-917-747-1714, michelle.savage@xbrl.us, or Lynne Hasluck, +1-917-572-8264, lynne.hasluck@xbrl.us, both of XBRL US
