Best corporate actions data initiative—S&P Global Market Intelligence

Product overview—S&P Global Market Intelligence Managed Corporate Actions—Agent Validation Service

The S&P Global Market Intelligence Managed Corporate Actions—Agent Validation Service (AVS) is a corporate actions data platform designed to validate agent data and help firms enhance the accuracy and efficiency of their corporate actions announcements. AVS allows firms to outsource their data-scrubbing processes to S&P Global Market Intelligence’s corporate actions subject matter experts who review and validate data against firms’ golden-source corporate actions data. In 2023, AVS launched a managed service for asset managers, designed to transform their clients’ in-house processes to an outsourced operating model.

Premise

The purpose of the AVS is to introduce automation to corporate actions processing, which is currently manually intensive and prone to human error and operational risk. AVS was conceived on the back of working with multiple customers to understand their challenges associated with corporate actions announcements. For example, after receiving the issuer’s golden copy of data using the S&P Global Market Intelligence Managed Corporate Actions service, customers are often required to spend time and resources creating their final golden copy. In response, S&P Global Market Intelligence developed a service that automatically reduces manual processing and improves time-to-market for corporate actions announcements. In 2023, AVS added specific processes and features to eliminate risk and inefficiencies for asset managers. Launched as an application programming interface with a web interface, AVS creates customized golden record narratives for end-clients.

Measurables

The objective of the AVS is to modernize users’ operational processes for corporate actions announcements via an operating model that replaces their in-house processes.

In 2023, AVS buy-side clients achieved the following metrics within six months of go-live:

• 95% straight-through processing (STP) of mandatory corporate actions events.
• 85%+ STP of voluntary corporate actions events.
• 95% reduction in downstream breaks.
• 90% reduction in clients’ manual touchpoints and 35% reduction in total cost of ownership.
• 99.8% service accuracy rate, measurable each month.

Future objectives

S&P Global Market Intelligence plans to:

• Launch a multi-language golden record summary notification for end-clients to automate their client notification processes.
• Continue to add services such as beneficial ownership details in structured fields to eliminate risk and inefficiency around the pre-election paperwork process.
• Introduce machine learning into the golden record data-scrubbing process, with the goal of improving efficiency in narrative scrubbing.
• Grow and strengthen the firm’s network of custodians and move to a utility-based operating model.

Why S&P Global Market Intelligence won

S&P Global Market Intelligence has won numerous awards down the years, but this is its first success in a corporate actions category in these or any other WatersTechnology awards. Corporate actions processing is notoriously manually intensive and, consequently, prone to operational risk and processing inefficiencies/bottlenecks. Traditionally, it’s an unsexy area of the capital markets that has consequently been underfunded, although S&P Global Market Intelligence’s outstanding AVS initiative has gone some way to remedying the situation. Early results of the initiative have been impressive, with STP rates up significantly and manual processing down across the board for its buy-side early adopters. This initiative is an outstanding illustration of the type of innovation that moves the financial services industry forward, and in so doing, frees up middle- and back-office personnel so they can focus on higher-value tasks.