Checkfree receives SwiftReady corporate actions label for eVent

CheckFree eVent enables custodians, asset managers, brokers and other organisations involved in corporate actions to process all 67 Corporate Action types, including rights issues, stock splits and dividends, currently supported by ISO15022 via SWIFT and other vendor feeds, to achieve the highest levels of STP automation.

CheckFree is one of the first to achieve the SWIFT Corporate Actions accreditation, and has already received SWIFT accreditations for the company's defacto standard financial messaging and trade processing solution, CheckFree TradeFlow.

With event v. 2, CheckFree brings to market a single integrated technology platform, thorough pre-testing and a customer-focused application — all backed by an established, financially secure supplier with a commitment to ongoing research and development. In an increasingly regulatory-driven securities industry, CheckFree's corporate actions approach delivers risk management benefits and strengths that the SWIFT CA accreditation has confirmed.

"This is the second year in which SWIFT has offered application vendors the opportunity to apply for the Corporate Actions label. Our customers can be completely confident that any vendor who qualifies for this label has demonstrated correct usage of the ISO15022 corporate action messages, as well as adherence to Global Market Practice guidelines and SWIFT connectivity. The SWIFT labelling of Corporate Action products has been an elusive target for many vendors and it is to CheckFree's credit that their eVent product has achieved this distinction for 2004," said Catherine Marks, SWIFT Securities Markets.

Amery Thomas, senior vice president of International Operations for CheckFree Software, adds: "From the outset, eVent was designed with the ISO15022 standards in mind because we recognised it was a key enabler and catalyst for automation within the Corporate Actions industry. The SWIFT label is confirmation that our approach was right, both for now and the future, and it's gratifying to be recognised by an industry leader of SWIFT's calibre."

CheckFree eVent v.2 is based on the same technology that underpins CheckFree TradeFlow and is a mature application that provides full end-to-end processing for the corporate actions environment. eVent is an 'out-of-the-box' set of pre-configured, function-rich corporate action tools for the front, middle and back office.

The solution includes all mandatory and voluntary workflow templates, ISO-based validation templates, notification templates, including SWIFT, fax, and email, and all entitlement calculation templates. eVent provides an easily integrated, single application workflow environment that normalises business processes and can be installed in weeks, which can reduce costly and time-consuming professional services.

The result is vastly improved service, operational efficiency and a potential reduction in the risk usually associated with protracted system deployment. Achieving SWIFTReady recognition is an endorsement of CheckFree's technology leadership in Corporate Action automation.

As Paul FitzGerald, eVent product manager, CheckFree, explains: "eVent v.2 is the result of extensive research and development over the past three years and represents a quantum leap over the earlier version. One of the major differentiators of the new eVent solution is its high degree of workflow pre-configuration. We do not just provide a generic Corporate Action solution that must then be configured onsite. Our approach is to deliver a robust end-to-end solution that is already customised and has been thoroughly pre-tested. In addition, key business scenarios and expected results have been extensively documented and all aspects of a corporate action's life-cycle have been pre-proven representing many man-years of testing." eVent's corporate users are assured that before taking delivery, all system templates have undergone pre-testing of over 950 user-specified test cases for all workflow scenarios for the 67 ISO CA templates.