Corporate actions in Australia - the case for transformation: report

The case for transforming Australia’s corporate actions model.

In Partnership with

Corporate actions in Australia continue to generate avoidable cost, delay and operational risk across the market. This report examines the burden of data sourcing, the reliance on manual event formats and the impact of long processing timelines on brokers and investors.

Data sourcing burden

Operations

A progress bar showing 46% of broker costs linked to data sourcing.

This single cost line exceeds the total cost of processing events through the system.

A market-wide data standard would reduce this burden without requiring firms to rebuild their operating model.

Manual data reliance

Risk

A ring graphic showing 65% of investor data received manually.

Accepting manual data formats means accepting the operational risk that comes with them.

Reliance on manual inputs creates downstream risk that compounds as event volumes rise.

Dividend delivery lag

Operations

A figure card showing 25 days from issuer to investor.

Significant losses in interest earnings accumulate across the industry each day as a result of this delay.

Even routine event types absorb processing time that a more automated model would remove.

Corporate actions in Australia remain constrained by manual data sourcing, fragmented workflows and long processing timelines. The challenge is not only operational inefficiency, but the cumulative cost and risk created when firms continue to rely on non-standardised event data and slow distribution models.

Where are the largest cost and risk pressures in Australia's corporate actions chain? What does the market stand to gain from a more automated and timely operating model?

The report examines the structural case for corporate actions transformation in Australia. It looks at the cost burden on brokers, the format and quality of data reaching investors and the delays that continue to affect even routine event processing across the market.

The research highlights:

46% of broker costs tied to data sourcing: data sourcing alone accounts for nearly half of Australian brokers' total corporate actions costs

65% of investor event data received manually: most investor data still arrives through websites and portals, increasing operational risk across the buy-side