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FT Interactive Data
and Xcitek's XSPT Complete Comprehensive Testing of ISO 15022
Files
17 March 2006 - London
FT Interactive Data Europe, part of Interactive
Data (NYSE: IDC) and a leading supplier of financial information
to global markets, and Xcitek, a leading global provider of
market data, corporate actions software and staffing solutions,
today announced that the two companies have successfully completed
the comprehensive testing of FT Interactive Data's latest
ISO 15022 formatted corporate action files via Xcitek's flagship
software solution, XSPT. This upfront testing aims to accelerate
the time to production for FT Interactive Data's and Xcitek's
respective customers.
The testing of the available ISO 15022 event types - which
cover thousands of events - via the XSP interface was undertaken
by FT Interactive Data and Xcitek throughout January 2006
prior to the latest release of FT Interactive Data's ISO 15022
service. A significant benefit of this approach is that the
time a client spends on testing FT Interactive Data's inbound
feed - when the combination of data and software are installed
at a customer site - should be reduced.
FT Interactive Data, a provider of corporate action event
data for over 30 years, has a wealth of experience in gathering,
updating, validating and delivering corporate actions data
to financial institutions. Its comprehensive corporate action
information available in ISO 15022 format includes rights
issues, bonus issues, mergers and acquisitions, and redemptions.
FT Interactive Data made available the first release of its
ISO 15022 based corporate actions service in the summer of
2004. Today, its current release covers the majority of the
67 event types that deal with corporate actions content. Upon
initial release, this service was available for FTP over the
internet; in September 2005, FT Interactive Data announced
that its service is now also available via SWIFTNet.
Awarded the SWIFTReady Corporate Actions Label, XSP features
comprehensive data capture from multiple vendor sources, custodians,
prime brokers and agent banks; rules-based scrubbing tools;
a robust workflow management module and complete entitlement
processing. Using client defined queues and user views, tasks
and exceptions are automatically routed to the appropriate
designated parties for the required action. XSP delivers the
functionality to manage client event notifications and election
responses through both its ISO module and its web-based component,
eTRAN. Using these tools, instructions are automatically captured
and updated to the back-end systems for reconciliation and
entitlement processing.
Nat Sey, FT Interactive Data Europe's manager of infrastructure
and delivery, said: "We have been working with Xcitek for
the past couple of years to smooth out the implementation
of the various releases of our ISO 15022 corporate actions
service. Over the past few months, we have tested many new
aspects of this latest release, which was particularly comprehensive.
As a result, I would expect to see significantly reduced implementation
cycles at customer sites and am confident that this should
provide added value for the customer."
Adrian Gray, Xcitek's senior business analyst for Europe,
commented: "During testing of the FT Interactive Data vendor
feed, we were pleased to see that the principles set out by
the Market Data Provider User Group were adhered to. We successfully
mapped and processed the received data into XSP without any
modifications or enhancements required by either party."
Neil Sheppard, Xcitek's chief operating officer
of XSP Europe, added: "The benefits of automating corporate
actions processing with Xcitek's XSP solution are further
enhanced by our latest offering of FT Interactive Data's vendor
feed in the ISO 15022 format. We have a long-standing relationship
with FT Interactive Data and look forward to continue working
closely with them to implement our complementary services
at global client sites." .
About Interactive Data Corporation
Interactive Data Corporation (NYSE: IDC) is a leading global
provider of securities pricing, financial information and
analytic tools to institutional and individual investors.
The company supplies time-sensitive pricing (including evaluated
pricing), dividend, corporate action and descriptive information
for more than 3.5 million securities traded around the world,
including hard-to-value instruments. Many of the world's best-known
financial service and software companies subscribe to the
company's services in support of their trading, analysis,
portfolio management and valuation activities.
Interactive Data is headquartered in Bedford, Massachusetts.
Through its branded businesses, FT Interactive Data, ComStock,
CMS BondEdge and eSignal, Interactive Data has approximately
2,100 employees in offices located throughout North America,
Europe, Asia and Australia. Pearson plc (LSE: PSON; NYSE:
PSO), an international media company whose businesses include
the Financial Times Group, Pearson Education and the Penguin
Group, owns approximately 62 per cent of the outstanding common
stock of Interactive Data Corporation.
FT Interactive Data Europe, part of Interactive Data, is
a leading provider of financial information to global markets.
FT Interactive Data supplies global securities pricing, evaluations,
dividend, corporate action and descriptive information designed
to support mutual funds' pricing activities, securities operations,
research and portfolio management. FT Interactive Data collects,
edits, maintains and delivers data on more than 3.5 million
securities, including daily evaluations for approximately
2.5 million fixed income and international equity issues.
FT Interactive Data specialises in 'hard-to-value' instruments
and 'hard-to-get' information from emerging markets.
FT Interactive Data Europe is a division of Interactive Data (Europe) Ltd. The FT Interactive Data business includes FT Interactive Data Corporation, a Delaware corporation, and the FT Interactive Data divisions of Interactive Data (Europe) Ltd. and Interactive Data (Australia) Pty Ltd.
About Xcitek
Xcitek is a global leader in market data, corporate actions software, and staffing solutions.
Accredited with the SWIFTReady Corporate Actions Label, XSP is ISO 15022 compliant and features an extensive workflow module, robust data scrubbing tools, web and ISO messaging for client notification and response capture (eTRAN), and complete entitlement processing to manage the entire corporate actions lifecycle - thereby reducing risk and maximising operational efficiency. With over 50 licensed clients, XSP is the most widely-implemented corporate actions system in the world.
Xcitek's market data offerings include Corporate Actions, Cost Basis, Class Actions, Securities Payments, and other financial data, serving over 2,000 clients worldwide. Ranked #1 for ten consecutive years by The Summit Group, Xcitek has led all other providers in its categories in such areas as data accuracy, data timeliness, coverage and delivery reliability. User-friendly, flexible and affordable, Xcitek's web-based solutions deliver time-sensitive and critical information straight to the desktop.
Xcitek's consulting and staffing group provides financial institutions with highly skilled professionals for temporary and permanent placement in operations, outsourcing, project management and systems conversion. With its comprehensive database of experienced professionals, Xcitek carefully screens candidates to match clients with the appropriate personnel to assist them in successfully reaching their goals.
For more information please see: http://www.xsp.com
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