NEW YORK, April 2 /PRNewswire/ — XBRL US and Securities Operations Forum jointly announced that top-name speakers will be presenting at a one-day conference, Corporate Actions 2009: Improving Issuer-Investor Communication by reducing risk and cost through technology standards, on May 28, 2009 in New York City at the Westin Times Square. This conference will explore how issuers can benefit from adopting information and technology standards for the creation, processing, distribution and analysis of corporate actions data.
Speakers at the conference will include:
- Jeff Morgan, President and CEO, National Investor Relations Institute
- David Blaszkowsky, Director, Office of Interactive Disclosure, Securities and Exchange Commission
- William Lutz, Deputy Director of the Office of Interactive Disclosure, Securities and Exchange Commission
- Jack Reerink, Global Company News Editor, Reuters
- Julie Warren, Senior Managing Director, NY Life Investment Management
- Anthony DePalma, Senior VP, Brown Brothers Harriman
- Donald Donahue, Chairman and CEO, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation
- Alfred R. Berkeley, CEO and Chairman, Pipeline Trading
- Jamie Shay, Head of Standards, SWIFT
- Craig S. Dudsak, Managing Director, Global Transaction Services – Global Custody, Citi (Chair-Elect, Association of Global Custodians)
- Campbell Pryde, Chief Standards Officer, XBRL US
- Jon Wisnieski, Senior Policy Analyst, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
- Karla McKenna, Director, Citi, Chair, ISO TC68, Financial Services
- Ernesto Lanza, General Counsel, Municipal Securities Regulatory Board
Speakers representing the issuer, the processor and the user of public company announcement information will provide a detailed examination of the business case for solutions through standards. The conference will include the demonstration of a Corporate Actions data standard using XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) and aligned with the ISO 20022 standard for financial services.
“Public company press releases and prospectuses do not always follow a standard in how corporate action events are defined,” said Jeff Morgan, President and CEO of NIRI. “That may lead to a lack of clarity and the potential for inaccuracies when data intermediaries, processing agents and investors interpret the public company data. Investor relations officers, corporate secretaries and other public company representatives should understand the process and learn about the possibilities for improvement.”
Other conference highlights include:
- A global view of standards – speakers from Asia and Europe will explain the importance of global standards for corporate actions and examine results where XBRL has been implemented
- Solutions through standards – panelists will discuss how standardization can enable straight-through-processing from issuer to investor
- Solutions through technology – current implementations of XBRL will be presented including bank institution call reports and US GAAP reporting by public companies
- CPE credit will be available
“If everyone can agree on an industry information standard that can be combined with the XBRL technology standard, we can have greater transparency and better communication between issuers and investors. Now that the SEC has begun to require public companies to file XBRL-formatted financial statements, issuers can follow the SEC’s lead and adopt a corporate actions data standard and provide that information in XBRL format,” said Bill Lutz, Deputy Director of the Office of Interactive Disclosure, Securities and Exchange Commission.
Individuals who should attend the conference from the issuer side include financial executives, corporate secretaries, and investor relations officers as well as underwriters and attorneys. Regulators, custodians, broker dealers and investors involved in corporate actions should also attend.
The conference is hosted jointly by XBRL US, the national consortium for XML business reporting standards, and by Securities Operations Forum, an educational center for operations professionals in the financial services industry. The event is presented in association with The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and SWIFT, the global provider of financial messaging for over 200 countries (75 million corporate actions messages in 2008). To register and for more information, click here (http://www.soforum.com/conferences/home/industries/corporate-actions-2009-improving-issuer-investor-communications.agenda-990174.htm).
About DTCC
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), through its subsidiaries, provides clearance, settlement and information services for equities, corporate and municipal bonds, government and mortgage-backed securities, money market instruments and over-the-counter derivatives. In addition, DTCC is a leading processor of mutual funds and insurance transactions, linking funds and carriers with financial firms and third parties who market these products. DTCC’s depository provides custody and asset servicing for more than 3.5 million securities issues from the United States and 110 other countries and territories, valued at $27.6 trillion. In 2008, DTCC settled more than $1.88 quadrillion in securities transactions. DTCC has operating facilities in multiple locations in the United States and overseas.
About Securities Operation Forum
Securities Operations Forum is the leading educational company in the US securities processing industry, providing conferences, books, classroom training and eLearning programs to thousands of professionals each year. More information is available at www.soforum.com.
About SWIFT
SWIFT is a member-owned cooperative that provides the communications platform, products and services to connect over 8,500 banking organizations, securities institutions and corporate customers in more than 200 countries. SWIFT enables its users to exchange automated, standardized 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.
About XBRL
XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language) is a royalty-free, open specification for software that uses XML data tags to describe business and financial information for public and private companies and other organizations. XBRL benefits all members of the information supply chain by utilizing a standards-based method with which users can prepare, publish in a variety of formats, exchange and analyze financial statements and the information they contain. XBRL International is a non-profit consortium of approximately 550 organizations worldwide working together to build the XBRL language and promote and support its adoption. XBRL International is responsible for the technical XBRL specification and each country-specific jurisdiction works to facilitate the development and adoption of local XBRL taxonomies, or dictionaries, consistent with accounting, regulatory, and market standards and practices.
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 under a contract with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The XBRL US GAAP Taxonomies are available for review at http://xbrl.us/usgaappublicreview/Pages/default.aspx.
