XBRL US Labs ISO 20022 Corporate Actions Pilot Expanding

AMSTERDAM, Oct. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Sibos -- XBRL US Labs, the research arm of the national consortium for XML business reporting standards, announced today that two more industry leaders, tax recovery services provider GlobeTax, and corporate actions automation innovator XSP, will participate in the testing phase of an initiative commissioned by the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and SWIFT.

GlobeTax and XSP join Citi, who initiated the pilot with XBRL US and DTCC in September, shortly before XBRL US Labs publicly released an XBRL corporate actions taxonomy based on the ISO 20022 industry standard. Currently the taxonomy, or digital dictionary, is open to public review and comment and can be found at http://xbrl.us/publicreviews/Pages/2010corpactions.aspx

"Putting standards to a real-world market test is not only good industry leadership; it's good business," said XBRL US CEO Mark Bolgiano. "GlobeTax manages a complex securities withholding  tax environment, and XSP provides the connection to corporate actions service providers with its  robust corporate actions automation platform to support the 'last mile' of the information chain at global financial institutions.

"Both companies are valued members of XBRL US and serve a key role in the information infrastructure, consuming and delivering vast amounts of data using innovative technology.   Their participation helps give us a full-life cycle test bench to measure the effects of standardization on the efficiency, timeliness, and quality of data flow through a complex chain joining corporate issuers, intermediaries, all the way to an informed investor."

XBRL US made the announcement today at Sibos, the world's largest financial services conference with over 8,500 participants. The combination of XBRL and ISO 20022 for corporate actions is a central thread of  the conference, and in the Standards Forum, a track within Sibos drawing capacity crowds this year, as the public and private sector increasingly focus on the market benefits of open, global data standards.

"The US pilot led by DTCC, SWIFT, and XBRL US Labs has attracted much interest -- not only within Citi, and now with GlobeTax and XSP, but among people and institutions assembled here in Amsterdam who are involved in the stakeholder and market practice groups that are part of this movement," said Karla McKenna, Director, Market Practice and Standards, Citi Securities and Fund Services, and Chair of the technical committee responsible for the ISO 20022 standard. "There really is a growing buzz around standardization and I expect the list of participants and the interest in this pilot, to continue to grow."

GlobeTax and XSP will join Citi at a press conference during the upcoming XBRL US National Conference:  The Path to Transparency, in Philadelphia November 9-10.  Conference programming will cover the Citi XBRL pilot, the corporate actions business case as well as an Innovation Workshop hosted by SWIFT where participants can brainstorm about the next big idea in XBRL for securities processing.  

To get a complimentary media pass to the conference, email [email protected].

To learn more about the conference, visit http://conference.xbrl.us

To register, visit http://register.xbrl.us  

About GlobeTax

GlobeTax is the world's largest provider of withholding tax recovery services to the global financial investment community.  GlobeTax services all participants in the investment chain from issuers through  intermediaries to investors.  With clients resident in over 40 countries and filing over two million claims a year, GlobeTax provides the most innovative tools to the investment community including online portals for documentation management (eDocs), data transmission (ESP) as well as SWIFT messaging (TRSB): all designed to automate tax reclamation, increase efficiencies, reduce costs and eliminate risk for clients.  The company is headquartered in New York and has offices in London, Milan and Sydney.  For more information, visit http://globetax.com.

About XSP

XSP is the global leader in end-to-end Corporate Actions automation solutions for the global financial services industry. Accredited with the SWIFTReady Corporate Actions Label, the XSP platform is SWIFT ISO 15022 compliant and proven to mitigate the operational risks and costs associated with Corporate Actions processing. This leading-edge solution features an extensive workflow module and robust data management tools. XSP's Web-based eTRAN® and SWIFT ISO messaging modules automate the client notification and response capture and reconciliation of elections on complex Corporate Actions events. The XSP Entitlement Management module completes the Corporate Actions processing lifecycle for true end-to-end straight-through processing. With over 60 global clients, the XSP software is the most widely-implemented Corporate Actions solution in the world.

XSP is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and has achieved a Microsoft Competency in ISV/Software Solutions. The Company has also been named Corporate Actions 'Company to Watch in 2010' by Financial-i Magazine. For more information, please visit us at www.xsp.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.

SOURCE XBRL US