Best Corporate Actions Data Provider: SIX

When it comes to managing corporate actions, it is not surprising that a vendor known for quality, attention to detail and industry engagement in standards is leading the way. SIX has been on top for close to a decade now and this year’s ninth consecutive Best Corporate Actions Data Provider win creates the longest winning streak in this category. 

The vendor delivers standardized corporate actions data to more than 600 customers via the Valordata Feed (VDF). The structured data model that underpins the service makes it possible for SIX to normalize complex event data, which helps fuel automation in corporate actions processing and allows customers to receive information in near real time. 

“This is our core business, and we are delighted to have taken this title for the ninth consecutive year,” says Phil Lynch, head of markets, products and partners in SIX’s financial information business unit , adding that a strong customer base means greater potential for feedback on its service and hence more opportunities for improvement.

In the past year, enhancements have focused on significantly expanding fund coverage, as customers had previously been required to combine data in different formats from a variety of providers to get a full overview of events. “Covering funds in Europe is not a simple process. There are many different providers, so working on this new premium funds service enables us to collect more data,” says Lynch. To expand its coverage, SIX partnered with fund data providers and augmented the data with direct sourcing from some companies.

Another significant development for SIX has been the launch of SIX corporate actions as a self‑service data delivery system—a plug‑and‑play solution aimed at users not already using the VDF feed. “Customers are really focused on the cost of ownership, and they don’t want the burden of technical implementations,” says Lynch, explaining that the new delivery mechanism means there is no implementation required. “We want to make it very easy for a non-technical person to focus on the fields they want to get, and even determine when and the format they want to receive it in.”

These innovations from SIX and its commitment to product enhancements will come as no surprise to many and, according to the judges, corporate actions “has always been one of its strong suits—and it continues to lead the market.”

Judges called the SIX corporate actions offering “best in class,” and said the vendor has “always had the best corporate actions for decades,” benefitting from an “unrivalled breadth of coverage, with a compelling supporting case.”

Read more about the IMD/IRD Awards 2018 winners