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ClearStructure Adds DTCC's Contract Reconciliation and Messaging Service to Its Sentry Syndicated Loan Platforms
New York and London, November 10, 2009 -- The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) announced today that ClearStructure Financial Technology LLC will link to DTCC’s Loan/SERV suite of services to bring major new capabilities and efficiencies to its processing of syndicated loans.
ClearStructure, a leading supplier of software solutions to the financial services industry in the United States and Europe, will link its Sentry loan trading and portfolio management products to DTCC’s Loan/SERV Contract Reconciliation Service and Loan/SERV Messaging Service.
“ClearStructure’s Sentry offers powerful, flexible loan management solutions with a broad range of services that meet the needs of both the sell-side and buy-side participants,” said Scott Turley, chief executive officer of ClearStructure. “By linking to Loan/SERV, we’re giving our customers valuable new tools that will provide them with highly detailed loan information on a daily basis and enable them to communicate via an efficient, industry-standard messaging service.”
The Loan/SERV Contract Reconciliation Service is DTCC’s latest offering in a suite of services that is helping automate and streamline the processing of syndicated commercial loans. The new service greatly enhances and expands reconcilement capabilities for the global syndicated loan market. Loan/SERV Messaging Service, introduced in 2008, provides a safe and secure automated network for the transmission of standard loans between lenders and agent banks.
The Contract Reconciliation Service, in addition to enabling agent banks and lenders to reconcile loan positions on a daily basis, takes loan reconcilement to a more detailed level. It provides market participants with a broad array of loan information including interest rates, margin and fee calculations, drawn and unutilized balances, payment-in-kind balances and a host of other data that will further automate and streamline the processing of syndicated loans.
Contract Reconciliation provides 30 new data fields that help identify and correct processing errors before they lead to settlement problems. DTCC’s earlier Reconciliation Service was introduced in 2008 and enabled agent banks and lenders to view and reconcile loans at a total commitment balance level.
“The Loan/SERV Contract Reconciliation represents the second phase of DTCC’s reconciliation service,” said Mathew Keshav Lewis, DTCC vice president, European Loans Product Management. “It is the first and only global service that can provide reconcilement at all levels, from commitment and facility level down to the individual contracts, with all of the relevant transaction detail.”
Turley said that one of the great benefits of Contract Reconciliation is that it will help lenders correct errors in cash accruals and related cash flows before they become problems. “This will greatly reduce profit and loss adjustments that come with processing errors and will help eliminate the time and effort required for manual tracking and correcting of these errors.”
“Contract Reconciliation will be especially valuable in Europe, where deals can be more complex with multiple borrowers, multiple currencies and a greater number of individual contracts,” Lewis said. “It will save countless hours in manual problem-solving and will move the market closer to straight-through processing.”
Loan/SERV Messaging Service provides a safe and automated network for the transmission, receipt and online storage of industry-standard loan messages. The global standard loan messages were developed by The Loan Syndications and Trading Association (LSTA) in the United States, in cooperation with The Loan Market Association (LMA) in Europe.
The service employs FpMLTM, the industry-standardized e-commerce language that the LSTA and LMA have worked to advance for the benefit of the global market. “FpML has already proven itself in the over-the-counter derivative trading market, where it combines speed, accuracy and security to provide an effective communications vehicle,” said Lewis.
Loan/SERV also will offer cash settlement capabilities including Delivery versus Payment (DVP) beginning in 2010. “Our multi-currency DVP service, coupled with the Loan/SERV Contract Reconciliation Service, will dramatically reduce risk and provide greater certainty in the syndicated loan market,” said Lewis. “DVP will provide greater certainty to loan traders that cash settles simultaneously with changes to asset ownership recorded by agent banks.”
Loan/SERV is a service offering of DTCC Loan/SERV LLC, a subsidiary of DTCC.
About DTCC
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), through its subsidiaries, provides clearance, settlement and information services for equities, corporate and municipal bonds, government and mortgage-backed securities, money market instruments and over-the-counter derivatives. In addition, DTCC is a leading processor of mutual funds and insurance transactions, linking funds and carriers with financial firms and third parties who market these products. DTCC’s depository provides custody and asset servicing for more than 3.5 million securities issues from the United States and 117 other countries and territories, valued at $27.6 trillion. Last year, DTCC settled more than $1.88 quadrillion in securities transactions. DTCC has operating facilities and data centers in multiple locations in the United States and overseas. For more information on DTCC, visit www.dtcc.com.
About ClearStructure Financial Technology LLC
ClearStructure Financial Technology LLC (formerly Atlantic Information Services) has delivered financial technology solutions to the investment industry for over fifteen years. Today, ClearStructure leverages this experience to provide a powerful front-to-back office portfolio management platform capable of meeting diverse trading, risk management, compliance, reporting and operational needs for a broad mix of asset types. Our products and services are used by many of the largest and most respected investment firms in the world. Currently ClearStructure has offices in Danbury CT, Houston TX and London UK. Find out more at www.clearstructure.com.
FpML is a trademark of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association.