Program to Evaluate Straight-Through Processing Efficiencies, Shareholder Benefits using Depositary Receipts (DRs)

NEW YORK, Sept. 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), SWIFT and XBRL US have announced an expansion of the XBRL pilot program to research the costs and benefits of transforming corporate actions processing. BNY Mellon's Depositary Receipts business will join the Issuer to Investor: Corporate Actions initiative launched in 2009 to improve data quality and reduce processing cost and time. As part of this pilot, BNY Mellon will publish corporate actions announcements about Depositary Receipts (DRs), for which it is the depositary, in XBRL format for downstream processing by stock exchanges, brokerage firms and investors. XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is a technology standard that makes business information computer-readable and more easily consumed.

DRs are negotiable U.S. securities issued by depositary banks, such as BNY Mellon, that represent a non-U.S. company's publicly traded equity. Corporate messages about DRs, such as dividend announcements, are sent from depositary banks to stock exchanges, investors and other intermediaries. These messages are often communicated as text, which requires re-keying by the various recipients, lengthening the process and raising the chance of inaccuracy.

"Enabling straight-through-processing of corporate actions announcements can improve timeliness, reduce costs, and streamline processing for investors," said Chris Kearns, deputy CEO and global product management head of BNY Mellon Depositary Receipts. "DRs have long been a convenient, cost effective way for U.S. investors to add international exposure to their portfolio. We look forward to taking part in this XBRL pilot program for corporate actions which can bring even greater value and transparency to the DR marketplace."

The pilot will use the XBRL Corporate Actions taxonomy that is aligned with the ISO 20022 standard and was finalized and published in June 2011.  BNY Mellon Asset Servicing is already participating in a DTCC pilot program for the ISO 20022 corporate actions standard. The XBRL Corporate Actions taxonomy covers 94 corporate actions events.  A new release of the taxonomy will be published in early 2012. 

To learn more, go to http://xbrl.us/research/Pages/CorporateActions.aspx.

To read the business case for XBRL for Corporate Actions, go to http://xbrl.us/i2i/pages/businesscase.aspx

To review the XBRL Corporate Actions taxonomy, go to http://xbrl.us/taxonomies/Pages/2011corpactions.aspx