XBRL Corporate Actions Data Tags Released to Public

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- XBRL US Labs, the research and development arm of XBRL US, announced today that it has completed the initial draft of a taxonomy, or digital dictionary of terms, to define corporate actions event information, and made it available for public review and comment.  

Over 50 types of corporate actions, including mergers, dividends, and stock splits can be tagged using this taxonomy to produce computer-readable documents and structured data that enables straight-through-processing (STP) from issuer to investor.  

Developed by a team led by XBRL US' Chief Standards Officer Campbell Pryde, and XBRL Labs Research Fellow L.A.  Orloff, a product manager with The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the XBRL tags are based on elements of the ISO 20022 corporate actions global standard and were developed as part of an Issuer-to-Investor: Corporate Actions initiative, a cooperative industry effort sponsored by DTCC, SWIFT and XBRL US Labs.

The initiative was formally kicked off at a May 2009 conference of industry leaders, at which project partners DTCC, SWIFT, and XBRL US outlined the program and set a goal of improving transparency and communication between issuers and investors for greater accuracy, reduced risks and lower costs.

Early milestones have included a business case developed with a multi-industry stakeholder group, a taxonomy preview by XBRL US members, and a pilot program to measure shareholder benefits of XBRL-tagged corporate actions involving major financial institutions who process and deliver corporate actions announcements, such as Citi, who, with DTCC, will test-run XBRL-tagged dividend announcements to evaluate data quality and consistency, as well as the flexibility XBRL offers in the form of country- and company-specific extensions to the common core taxonomy.

"Using XBRL to tag corporate actions documents will bring benefits to issuers, investors and intermediaries," said Donald F. Donahue, DTCC Chairman and CEO. "This taxonomy was designed to make it as simple as possible for issuers to tag documents in XBRL, with increased confidence that shareholders will receive better quality data, in less time, and at less cost."

The taxonomy takes advantage of the ISO 20022 corporate actions standard to provide a better user experience with multiple views and entry points into corporate actions data, using software tools that take advantage of the ISO and XBRL standards to view a simplified, filtered set of relevant dictionary terms for a given type of corporate action.

"XBRL is an important tool that leverages the ISO 20022 standard to improve the communication between issuers and investors, which ultimately reduces costs and risks as well as increases transparency," said Chris Church, Chief Executive, Americas, SWIFT, "The availability of the XBRL corporate actions taxonomy is a significant milestone that brings us one step closer to solving an age old problem that has plagued the industry for years."

To review the taxonomy and provide comment, go to http://xbrl.us/corpactionspr.  To learn more about the Issuer to Investor: Corporate Actions initiative, go to http://xbrl.us/research/Pages/CorporateActions.aspx.

About DTCC

DTCC, through its subsidiaries, provides clearance, settlement and information services for equities, corporate and municipal bonds, government and mortgage-backed securities, money market instruments and over-the-counter derivatives. In addition, DTCC is a leading processor of mutual funds and insurance transactions, linking funds and carriers with their distribution networks. DTCC's depository provides custody and asset servicing for more than 3.6 million securities issues from the United States and 121 other countries and territories, valued at US$33.9 trillion. In 2009, DTCC settled nearly US$1.48 quadrillion in securities transactions. DTCC has operating facilities and data centers in multiple locations in the United States and overseas. For more information, visit www.dtcc.com.

About SWIFT

SWIFT is a member-owned cooperative that provides the communications platform, products and services to connect over 9,000 banking organizations, securities institutions and corporate customers in 209 countries. SWIFT enables its users to exchange automated, standardized financial information securely and reliably, thereby lowering costs, reducing operational risk and eliminating operational inefficiencies. SWIFT also brings the financial community together to work collaboratively to shape market practice, define standards and debate issues of mutual interest. For more information, please refer to our website www.swift.com.

About XBRL US

XBRL US is the non-profit consortium for XML business reporting standards in the U.S. and it represents the business information supply chain.  Its mission is to support the implementation of XML business reporting standards through the development of taxonomies for use by U.S. public and private sectors, with a goal of interoperability between sectors, and by promoting XBRL adoption through marketplace collaboration.  XBRL US has developed taxonomies for U.S. GAAP, credit rating and mutual fund reporting under contract with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. XBRL US Labs, the research and development arm of XBRL US, leverages the XBRL US platform, methodologies and people to address the quality of taxonomies and the harmonization of XBRL with other XML standards. For more information, go to www.xbrl.us.

Links:

Taxonomy Comment and Review:  http://xbrl.us/corpactionspr

Issuer to Investor Initiative:  http://xbrl.us/research/Pages/CorporateActions.aspx

Corporate Actions Business Case:  http://xbrl.us/i2i/pages/businesscase.aspx

SOURCE XBRL US