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

Product overview—Security Data Change Service

S&P Global’s Security Data Change Service, an add-on within its Managed Corporate Actions (MCA) platform (see the Best corporate actions managed service category in these awards), delivers updates on listings, ticker, ID changes, delistings (where firms are removed from stock exchanges) and place-of-listing changes. It bridges the gap between reference data and corporate actions using verified issuer, exchange and vendor sources. MCA operations teams validate the discrepancies and provide the final golden output with all key data points in a structured format ready to feed multiple platforms.

The premise

The MCA service was designed to unify reference data and corporate actions. Using life cycle events and other data sources, it predicts both listings and delistings early in the life cycle, enabling firms to notify end‑clients under the UK delisting code and allowing them to take timely action and add or remove securities in their portfolios. MCA procures information about key identifiers and relevant fields directly from numbering agencies, including the Association of National Numbering Agencies, the London Stock Exchange, Cusip Global Services and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, making the data reliable and timely.

Measurables

• Adopted by a number of large financial institutions, including banks, retail brokers and asset managers
• Clients’ manual efforts/processing have been significantly reduced through automation
• The service tracks US over-the-counter ticker changes along with global exchange announcements
• Data is not captured in structured feeds by any other product/data provider
• The service covers all changes for the global equity universe.

Future objectives

S&P Global’s plans include linking end-of-day price feeds to validate life cycle changes, expanding direct sourcing capabilities across geographies, and using machine learning to distinguish between true delistings and place-of-listing transitions with accurate alerts. The current focus is on global equities, although S&P Global plans to also include fixed income in the near future.

Why S&P Global Market Intelligence won

S&P Global appears to be in a particularly good place right now on the corporate actions front, given its win in the Best corporate actions managed service category in addition to this category win for the Best corporate actions data initiative of this year’s IMD & IRD Awards. S&P Global’s success in this category is thanks to its impressive Security Data Change SDC service that sits within its MCA platform, designed to provide users with a unified view across their reference data and corporate actions. Using life cycle events and other data sources, it predicts both listings and delistings, allowing firms to notify their clients of changes so that they can make the necessary adjustments to their portfolios as soon as possible. That might not sound especially technical or important but, like so many other critical functions across the capital markets, nothing could be further from the truth, given that it allows buy-side firms to manage their portfolios quickly and accurately. Given S&P Global’s prominence in the corporate actions categories of this year’s data awards, who would bet against it bagging another pair of wins in next year’s edition?