London, UK, 1 February 2007 – Xcitek®, the leading global provider of Corporate Actions software, market data and consulting services, announced today that it has successfully completed testing of ISO messages submitted by its flagship software, XSP™, to SWIFT’s Corporate Actions Test and Certification Proof of Concept (POC) programme. Xcitek is committed to delivering full market practice compliance with the Event Interpretation Grid (EIG) guidelines published by the Securities Market Practice Group (SMPG) to ensure all XSP clients can achieve extremely high levels of straight-through processing (STP).
In an effort to improve the quality of FIN Corporate Actions messages and overall STP, the SWIFT Testing and Certification Service Proof of Concept tested the validity of ISO messages submitted by participants to comply with market practice as defined by the SMPG. The objectives of SWIFT’s POC were to successfully test several institutions and partners for their messaging data quality using an automated process and collect the participants’
Accredited with the SWIFTReady Corporate Actions Label, XSP is ISO 15022 compliant and features comprehensive data management components, workflow management modules, web and ISO messaging for client notification and response capture and complete entitlement processing. Utilising its rules-based, data-scrubbing engine with built-in exception handling capabilities, XSP captures and sanitises data from multiple vendor sources and custodian data. Through workflow tools, tasks are automatically routed to designated parties to handle the required action. XSP also offers the ability to track event notifications and elections via its web-based module, eTRAN™, by generating notifications to intermediaries for desired elections. Instructions are automatically updated to the back-end system for reconciliation and entitlement processing.
Max L. Mansur, Product Manager for Custodian Services at SWIFT, said, “This programme measures the quality of FIN messages and Xcitek’s participation clearly shows their commitment to data quality for Corporate Actions processing. We are pleased with their results and appreciate their strong commitment and support of this programme to further mitigate the risks and processing costs associated with Corporate Actions.”
Neil Sheppard, Chief Operating Officer Europe, XSP, at Xcitek, stated, “Xcitek’s voluntary involvement in this programme demonstrates our continued leadership in the Corporate Actions space and provides XSP clients with the assurance that their chosen solution will always be tested for compliance with market and best practices. We are committed to working with industry utilities such as SWIFT to advocate standards that promote STP. We are delighted with our successful results in this programme and look forward to our continued partnership.”
Jon Montgomery, Senior Vice President of Professional Services, XSP, at Xcitek, commented, “We are happy to have successfully implemented all of the required Corporate Actions scenarios within SMPG guidelines. Achieving this high standard is a direct result of our continued investments in enhancing XSP’s ISO process module over the years.”
About Xcitek
Founded in 1986, Xcitek is the global leader in Corporate Actions software, market data and consulting services to the financial community.
Accredited with the SWIFTReady Corporate Actions Label, XSP is ISO 15022 compliant and features an extensive workflow module, robust data scrubbing tools, web and ISO messaging for client notification and response capture (eTRAN™), and complete entitlement processing to manage the entire corporate actions lifecycle - thereby reducing risk and maximising operational efficiency. With over 50 licensed clients, XSP is the most widely-implemented Corporate Actions system in the world.
Xcitek’s market data offerings include Corporate Actions, Cost Basis, Securities Class Actions, Securities Payments and other financial data, serving over 2,000 clients worldwide. Ranked #1 for ten consecutive years by The Summit Group, Xcitek has led all other providers in its chosen specialised categories such as data accuracy, data timeliness, coverage, and delivery reliability. User-friendly, flexible, and affordable, Xcitek’s web-based solutions deliver time-sensitive and critical information straight to the desktop.
Xcitek’s consulting and staffing group provides financial institutions with highly-skilled professionals for temporary and permanent placement in operations, outsourcing, project management, and systems conversion.
