In order to be compliant with EU standards, the Austrian Corporate Action National Implementation Group (CANIG) and the Austrian CSD OeKB have decided to introduce the record date principle in Austria. CANIG Austria comprises of the leading market participants in Austria and is chaired by a representative of UniCredit Bank Austria.
The planned date for implementation of the new concept is 16 November 2015. This measure is also a pre-condition for joining the T2S platform in order to be able to support transaction management (claiming, transformation and buyer protection).
The record date is defined as the date on which settled positions are struck in the books of the Issuer (I)CSD at close of business to determine the entitlement to proceeds of a Corporate Action. It will be introduced for the following categories of Corporate Actions:
- Distributions: Cash Distributions, Securities Distributions and Distributions with Options
- Reorganisations: Mandatory Reorganisations with Options, Mandatory Reorganisations and Voluntary Reorganisations
The timeline for Distributions will look as follows:
- Announcement by Issuer
- Ex-Date (unless issued in nominal) – minimum 2 days after the Announcement
- Record Date – settlement cycle minus 1 business day (i.e. 1 business day) after Ex-Date
- Payment Date – preferably 1 business day after Record Date
The timeline for Mandatory Reorganisations will be the following:
- Announcement by Issuer
- Last Trading Date – minimum 2 days after the Announcement
- Record Date – minimum one settlement cycle after Last Trading Date (i.e. 2 business days)
- Payment Date – preferably 1 business day after Record Date
Impact on investors: For Corporate Actions, a new date for determination of entitled positions will be introduced in the market.
A more detailed analysis of the current status regarding the record date concept in Austria will be included in our monthly Newsletter for April 2015.