[ T H O U G H T
L E A D E R S H I P ]
Digitising corporate
actions
Corporate actions processes have been rife with inefficiencies for years. Global
Custodian speaks to SmartStream Technologies’ Kurt Eldridge, executive vice president,
global sales, on how corporate actions may finally step into the digital age.
What corporate actions trends are you see-
ing globally, and how is it impacting what
clients are looking for?
KE: What we have seen over the last nine
months is there has been a significant
uptick in volumes and client require-
ments. A lot these organisations have
been unable to fulfil the requirements just
by adding more people into the process.
This is driving the move to digitisation as
a lever to support the new processes and
demand by an increasing tech savvy and
mobile client base. With the need to carry
out corporate actions processes faster
and more efficient rather than through
traditional deployments, clients are using
SmartStream, where we are working with
our cloud-technology partners, to deliver
these types of solutions in weeks not
months.
What investments have you made into
your corporate actions services?
KE: We have made a tremendous amount
of investment into the product over the
past couple of years. We looked at the
market and their needs, and have seen a
shift away from the heavy deployment
into a more light-weight software-as-a-
service (SaaS). We have made significant
amounts of investments in that area, and
clients are absolutely embracing it, they
prefer the faster deployment model and
less of reliance on heavy weight support
requirements within their institutions.
With the majority of global regulations
now rolled out, what are clients looking
from you?
KE: The first is digitisation of banking,
which is driving a lot of the investment
to understand operational efficiencies,
which is a critical competent with the
pricing pressure our clients are experi-
encing in the market. Corporate actions
has been a very manual process for a lot
of institutions, and digitisation has shone
a focus on those previously-left alone
manual processes. Coupled with the
regulations, and even though they are not
particularly focused on corporate actions,
it is giving sell-side institutions and the
buy-side an understanding of what they
need to report, what holdings do they
have, and do they understand the nature
of their holdings the requisite reporting
regulations and jurisdictions they may
need to address. Thirdly, the clients of our
own clients expect the latest software and
technology, including real-time access as
well as the expectation of self-service and
reporting. That is helping to solidify some
of the business cases around these pro-
jects, not just from operational saves but
downstream customer services aspects.
What value is there with providing clients
independence over their data as they move
to a more digitised world?
KE: The main benefit we see is that it
gives them agility. Financial institutions
(FI) are moving away from a very struc-
tured, waterfall approach to bringing out
new products and services. The com-
petition is higher, the regulatory time-
frames to do these are limited, so a lot of
those institutions need to adopt an agile
approach where they need to test, try and
deliver these services and work through
them quickly.
Looking at the next 12 months, will those
themes continue to be a focus?
KE: These themes will continue, and un-
fortunately, I don’t think MiFID II will be
the last regulation we see in the foresee-
able future. The regulatory supervisory
bodies are now starting to understand in
greater detail the nature of the inter-
connectedness of the financial system,
and this understanding is only going to in-
crease the requirements for further infor-
mational flows and reporting. There are
also some big changes being deployed in
the core messaging processes between FI
to facilitate this increased reporting and
new workflows, some of which require a
reworking of the data architecture of the
solution provides in the market to sup-
port the enhanced workflow capabilities.
With regards to new technologies, it real-
ly is the consumerisation of the enterprise
solution stack, both internal stakeholder
and external stakeholders are seeing the
acceleration of consumer-based technol-
ogy in their daily lives, with attractive
interfaces, always available data and en-
hanced workflows. To attract and retain
both clients and internal supporters the
enterprise solution providers must begin
to provide a similar experience to com-
pete for a voice or share of mind. They
must understand what market changes
these new technologies might bring to
their industry and the investors that
support them.
Fall 2018
globalcustodian.com
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