NSD and provider Neoflex add modules for shares, bonds, unit trusts and organizations, increasing the flexibility of depository's services
The National Settlement Depository (NSD) has added customization options to its corporate actions platform, another step in its plan to fully automate corporate actions processes for its clients.
The Moscow-based NSD, Russia's largest central depository, partnered with GoldenSource last year on a wide-ranging project to introduce straight-through processing to reference data disclosure and dissemination in what is still largely a manual, paper-based environment.
The depository and software provider Neoflex has completed the next stage of the 15-month project, adding four new information modules – shares, bonds, unit investment trust units and organizations.
The solution already offers modules on shareholder meetings, dividend payments and some defaults on Russian issuer bonds, says Alexander Diakovskiy, vice president and director of information products at the NSD.
Diakovskiy says the project provides flexibility in the services offered by the NSD. The depository's core product, the Securities Information Review, is focused on the needs of core companies' key clients and allows them to directly integrate the NSD's database with their own information systems.
"However, different divisions of big financial institutions and some smaller institutions have been asking us to design a tailor-made product to meet their more specific needs," says Diakovskiy. "Some of them want to get data for a particular class of securities. Some of them need only the data on their portfolio. Some clients need just a specific piece of data we have, such as dividends or shareholders meetings.
"What we offer now is to tailor the product to the needs of a particular client. No excess information, only the data they really need," he adds.
Users may get information on all securities accepted for servicing by NSD, on issuers of clients' interest or clients' securities portfolios on deposit with NSD.
The next stage of the project provides a development of the Depository Receipts and Mortgage Participation Certificates information modules. This will be delivered this year, says Diakovskiy.
The NSD, which has a total value of assets on deposit of RUB27.4 trillion ($542.2 billion), conducts all exchange settlements and is a major part of over-the-counter settlements, and services Russian and foreign securities as a central securities depository.