Markit Acquires Corporate Actions Validation Service From DTCC

Markit, a leading, global financial information services company, today announced that it has acquired the assets of Global Corporate Actions Validation Service (GCA Validation Service), a leading provider of high quality, validated corporate actions data, from the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC).

The acquisition expands Markit’s reference data offering and the company’s ability to provide managed services to the global financial markets.  

Kevin Gould, president of Markit, said: “Acquiring DTCC’s Global Corporate Actions service will allow us to address customer demand for an outsourced service for the critical task of managing and validating corporate actions.  The industry is focused on creating operational efficiencies, reducing risk and lowering fixed costs.  The GCA Validation Service and its team of experienced professionals uniquely positions Markit to meet our customer needs.”

As part of Markit, the GCA Validation Service will continue to benefit from DTCC @Source, the authoritative source of corporate actions data for North America.  IDC and Six Financial Information, long-time providers to the GCA Validation Service, will also continue to be data suppliers to the service.  Markit will add further data sources, such as Euroclear Bank’s corporate actions data for Eurobonds, to the GCA database.  Markit has been distributing Euroclear Bank Eurobond data as part of a partnership the two companies announced last year.

The GCA Validation Service is used by brokerage firms, banks, hedge funds, investment managers and service providers to ensure accurate and timely processing of corporate actions.  With coverage of more than 1.4 million securities from over 170 countries globally, it is the largest provider of validated corporate actions information in the marketplace today.  The service requires no additional administration by customers.

More than 50 types of corporate action announcements in equities, bonds and structured products are accessible through the GCA Validation Service.  In 2012, it handled more than 967,000 corporate actions announcements and issued more than 10.5 million announcements on scheduled payments for fixed income securities.

The GCA Validation Service team of corporate actions experts who research, validate and confirm corporate actions will continue to support the service.  

Markit plans to enhance the service to offer customers an expanded universe of data sources and even more timely notification of corporate actions.