The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has announced that Société Générale in North America will link to its Loan/SERV Reconciliation Service as both agent bank and lender to help automate and streamline the processing of syndicated loans, enabling the bank to view and reconcile loan positions with thousands of lenders on a daily basis. Société Générale is the first French bank to link to the Reconciliation Service in North America.
“As our role in the global syndicated loan market grows, we are dedicated to ensuring that we, as an agent bank, and our lenders agree on loan positions and the accruals that take place during the life of the loan”, said Michele Ushkowitz, Head of Financing Operations for Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking in the Americas. “The Reconciliation Service should provide us with a solution that automates this process on a daily basis, especially in the more liquid and diversified North American market, boosting efficiencies and position accuracy while helping to reduce risk”.
Société Générale joins the growing list of top tier global agent banks that use the Reconciliation Service to view and reconcile loan positions and accruals. Other agent banks using Loan/SERV are BNY Mellon, Barclays Capital, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, The Royal Bank of Scotland and Wells Fargo.
“Loan/SERV is the only service that provides a global reconciliation solution for the syndicated loan market, serving more than 3,100 banks and loan investment vehicles in more than 45 countries across North America, Latin American, Europe, Asia and Africa,” said Mathew Keshav Lewis, DTCC vice president, Global Loans Products. “We welcome the addition of Société Générale and we further look to provide operational improvements to the syndicated loan market.”
Syndicated loans involve multiple lenders for each borrower, with agent banks acting as the liaison, transmitting information between parties. Loan/SERV automates the process and enables agent banks and lenders to view and reconcile loans on a position basis, or at a more detailed level ranging from the commitment and transaction level down to the individual contracts, drawings and fees with all relevant transactions details.
Along with the agent banks, more than 3,100 investment funds and lending entities administered by more than 270 leading funds managers and bank lenders have linked to the reconciliation service since Loan/SERV was launched in 2008. These firms now represent approximately 50% of the global syndicated loan market.
