The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the largest financial services post-trade infrastructure organisation in the world, announced today it has opened a new office in Shanghai to provide round-the-clock coverage for its fast-growing global corporate actions business.
The new service centre will support DTCC's Global Corporate Action (GCA) Validation Service, which provides brokers, banks and other financial institutions an automated, standardised source of global corporate action announcement information for 100 plus events, ranging from rights offerings to elective dividends to tender offers and stock splits. The service is provided by Global Asset Solutions LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of DTCC.
"With the launch of the Shanghai office, our GCA Validation business will be a truly global operation, offering a service that follows the sun," says Jill M. Considine, chairman and chief executive officer of DTCC. "From Monday morning in Asia to Friday evening in the United States, whenever and wherever markets are open, we will have continuous corporate action information for our clients."
"GCA Validation is the first corporate actions service of its kind with a global footprint," adds James Femia, DTCC managing director and head of the GCA business. "We expect to have about 30 corporate actions specialists in Shanghai tracking securities from across the Asian markets. This will complement our London and U.S-based service centers."
"Without question, Asian corporate actions are the most complicated because of the differing market standards and practices, as well as language differences," says Femia. "DTCC recognizes the importance of being in the local time zone, speaking the local language and having the local contacts."
"In the Shanghai office, we'll focus specifically on corporate actions from the region, including Australia, China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand, among others," says Andrew Barnes, DTCC manager of the Shanghai office.
The GCA Validation Service was launched last year by DTCC to offer clients accurate and timely market-sensitive information. It also offers custodian verification capabilities in which custodians' announcement notifications are confidentially compared with announcements generated by the GCA Validation Service to enhance the overall quality of information. The service allows customers to offload functions that are largely manual and non-standardised, and thus error-prone, risky and costly.
"Our service eliminates the laborious, time-consuming processes associated with 'scrubbing' corporate actions data, which helps our customers lower risk and drive down their costs," says Barnes. "The GCA Validation Service supports the growing industry need for access to automated, standardized corporate action announcement information."
In opening the service centre, DTCC is teaming with Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, which is providing both operations staff and facilities in Shanghai. Accenture worked with DTCC to develop its GCA Validation Service, and continues to provide support in marketing the service