The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and Swift today announced an initiative to expand options for communicating with DTCC's new Alternative Investment Products (AIP) suite of services.
This collaboration on global message standards will provide market participants the enhanced ability to connect to the AIP service suite using ISO 20022-compliant XML messages and the SWIFT network, in addition to the proprietary message formats and direct link to DTCC that is currently available today.
AIP, a service that links broker/dealers, fund managers, administrators and custodians, provides settlement of subscriptions and redemptions for various alternative investment vehicles, automating the exchange of all trade-related account information. Offered by DTCC's National Securities Clearing Corporation subsidiary, AIP received regulatory approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in May.
"Building formats and messages in collaboration with SWIFT eases customer implementation of AIP, and addresses the market demand for building messaging interfaces only once," said Ann Bergin, managing director, DTCC Wealth Management Services. "Feedback from our joint DTCC-SWIFT working group was very clear on this point: greater interoperability between global participant organizations and industry utilities benefits everyone who's active in the alternative investment space."
The announcement that the organizations are working together on standards for alternative investments has been welcomed by the hedge fund industry. Speaking at a meeting jointly hosted by DTCC and SWIFT in Dublin in May, Gary Palmer, CEO of the Irish Funds Industry Association, said, "I am delighted that organizations such as DTCC and SWIFT have come together to work towards the common good, to improve processing efficiency globally for hedge funds."