At the end of last week Central Depository AD held a seminar on Market Standards for Corporate Actions and General Meetings for interested parties (issuers and CDAD members). The purpose of the seminar was:
- To promote European Market Practice Standards for Corporate Actions Processing and General Meetings, including the National Market Implementation Group’s purpose and activities;
- To present CDAD’s new system functionalities for the distribution of information about corporate actions and general meetings to its members. These new system functionalities are part of the global changes in CDAD’s IT system, expected to go live later this year.
Starting 25 February 2013, CDAD will make a new web-based portal available where issuers may easily provide information about corporate actions and general meetings. Upon receiving such information, CDAD will generate a SWIFT message and distribute it to its respective members. Initially this will be done through the FTP channel CDAD uses for communication with each of its member. Later on with the start of CDAD’s new IT system, the SWIFT channel may also be used for the distribution of information. Some of the information shall also be available on CDAD’s website. Issuers are strongly encouraged to use the new web-based portal for announcing information about their corporate actions and general meetings; however, they are not obliged to do so.
The above changes are expected to bring Bulgarian market practices much closer to meeting the requirements of the Market Standards for Corporate Actions Processing and General Meetings, developed by the Corporate Actions Joint Working Group and Joint Working Group on General Meetings.
Impact on investors: CDAD will soon start distributing SWIFT-formatted information about corporate actions and general meetings to its members. This is expected to somewhat facilitate the transmission of such information by CDAD’s members to intermediaries and end investors, thus reducing costs and operational risks to some extent and more closely aligning Bulgarian market practices with the Market Standards for Corporate Actions Processing and General Meetings.
Related Newsflash: Newsflash BULGARIA – Central Depository AD Plans to Amend Its Rules and Regulations