Corporate actions are historically being seen as the least automated - and therefore most labour-intensive, error and risk-prone areas in data processing within financial institutions. The recent AIM Global Data and Risk Management Survey shows a growing demand for the automation of corporate actions, as about 30% of close to 1,800 responding financial institutions plan to increase the level of automation for corporate actions. Companies seem to realize that they are facing serious operational risk and huge potential losses in this area.

A high degree of STP (Straight Through Processing) in corporate actions can therefore be seen as business critical, and automating even a part of the corporate actions workflow can lead to substantial benefits in terms of increased staff productivity and risk reduction.

Martin Buchberger, Head of Marketing & Sales at AIM Software, says: "The driving force in corporate actions processing are errors and the associated costs which occur due to miscommunication and disregarded financial information. In the context of the current regulatory environment, such as Basel II and Sarbanes-Oxley, the GAIN CADS module proactively addresses the operational risk associated with exceptions around corporate actions data."

The GAIN CADS module grants access to high quality reference data, corporate events and pricing data from leading back-office and real-time market data vendors and fully supports the ISO 15022 corporate actions messaging format that is more and more adopted by key providers (e.g. SWIFT, Telekurs Financial, Reuters, FT Interactive Data, WM Datenservice, and Bloomberg).

GAIN CADS is designed for a fast implementation and extends AIM Software's product line, GAIN, which operates as a centralized reference data management and risk management platform that aims at cutting the costs and risk associated with back office processes.

"Our new corporate actions module underlines AIM Software's commitment to offer best practice solutions that are aligned with market needs. We are looking forward to offer this new extension to our existing clients who use GAIN worldwide and to companies who intend to improve their corporate actions workflow," Buchberger states.