Like many of our clients and industry partners, we’ve been busy navigating the challenges of working remotely while still delivering on our goals and deadlines. A great example of our seamless execution for clients is the recent stock splits for Apple and Tesla.
As many are aware, in August two of the most famous technology companies split their stock, as Apple and Tesla increased the number of shares each for each investor. Tesla split its stock 5-for-1 and Apple split its stock 4-for-1. When both stock splits were publicly announced in July, it gave DTCC less than a month to prepare.
Our team was focused on the logistics of handling the two largest stock split valuations in DTCC’s history. Dealing with just one of these stock splits would have been a huge undertaking for our Corporate Actions team; even navigating both in the span of a couple of months would have been tremendous. But executing both stock splits -- on the same day -- made for an extremely unique opportunity.
Thankfully, this wasn’t the first time we’ve been tasked with something so immense; at DTCC, we’re used to working in inconceivably large numbers, like billions, trillions and quadrillions. In 2014, Apple had a stock split that, at the time, was the largest allocation in history. And while we didn’t have the advantage in August of meeting in-person to whiteboard ideas, work through testing and propose various scenarios like we could in years past, we did have the biggest asset: our vast resource of talented DTCC subject experts who really know the post-trade business.
Using the knowledge of past scenarios, with the 2014 event as a base template for both 2020 events, our teams collaborated in a virtual environment and worked through various processes. With only a few weeks to navigate all the planning, testing and implementations, we were able to complete both events on time.
When the stock splits were allocated in August, there was no mention of DTCC in the news -- and that means we did our job well. We serve the needs of our broad range of clients who rely on us to seamlessly execute across asset classes, from initial onboarding through trading, clearance, settlement, asset servicing, data management and trade reporting. We’ll continue to work hard to enhance the way we handle our day-to-day business and continuously aim for perfect results because that is what our clients – and the industry – require.