Corporate actions - a team sport: whitepaper

Corporate actions remain one of the most persistent sources of cost and operational friction in post-trade. The challenge is not only the volume of activity, but the fragmented communication, manual processing and duplicated effort that continue to increase risk across the lifecycle. 

Where are the biggest frictions and costs in US corporate actions today? What would change if firms moved towards a more coordinated and standardised operating model?

The whitepaper examines the true scale of inefficiency in US corporate actions processing, where avoidable cost is concentrated and what an optimised lower-risk future state could look like. It explores friction points, manual error, profit and loss impact and the case for better coordination across the market.

The research, produced in partnership with Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), highlights:

• The total yearly US industry cost of corporate actions processing is estimated at US dollar (USD) 58 billion

• Better coordination and technology could remove USD 15 billion of corporate actions cost each year

• The research points to a single trusted source of information as a critical enabler of a lower-risk and more efficient model

• The paper identifies where costs and risk concentrate today and what an optimised future state should look like