May 30, 2012
Omgeo aims to reduce failed trades in Taiwan
Post-trade process specialist Omgeo has committed to reducing the risks of failed trades in Taiwan, in addition to driving greater
same-day affirmation (SDA) across trading in multiple asset classes.
“A recent study Omgeo conducted shows that the value of equity
transactions at risk of trade failure could be upwards of US$970 billion, and
the value of fixed income transactions at risk is estimated at approximately
US$300 billion,” said Julie Feaunati, Omgeo’s director of Asia Pacific
relationship management. “The cost of stock borrowing to avert the risk of
trade failure on this scale could be as much as US$3.8 billion.”
Though
still an emerging market, Taiwan is expected to see an uptick of cross border
transactions and with it, a growing concern that the risk of settlement failure
will increase if shorter settlement cycles are not preceded by an increase in
the efficiency of the middle-office, particularly in the trade matching
process, according to Feaunati.
A
large chunk of post-trade processing is still done manually in Taiwan, which
operates on a T+2 settlement cycle, raising the risks for both counterparties.
With an inflow of global investment capital in recent years, the drive for
greater market efficiency has been gathering steam.
According
to Feaunati, SDA greatly reduces the odds of post-trade failure.
Countries with SDA rates of over 90%, such as India, Taiwan,
Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Korea consistently register the most impressive
settlement efficiency scores; countries with SDA rates of less than 70%, like Brazil,
Italy, South Africa and the United States, consistently register below-average
settlement efficiency scores, according to research by Omgeo. The settlement
efficiency is 26% higher countries with the top SDA rates, compared to those at
the other end of the scale.
“SDA is critical because it accelerates the post-trade process and
leaves enough time to identify and address any errors and mismatches before
trades are due to settle,” points out Feaunati.
SDA
benefits the entire industry, argues Feaunati. “It leads to better settlement
certainty, which is good for the buy-side, sell-side and custodians. All
parties to a trade want it to settle on time and for money to change hands. To
be successful though, brokers and buy side participants must be automated.”
BlackRock adopted
Omgeo’s Central Trade Manager in Taiwan in April 2011, gaining it traction with
several local broker-dealers and helping to boost automation.
More
advanced markets in Asia, including Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Japan, as
well as emerging ones, would also benefit from increased post-trade process
automation, suggests Feaunati.
“The
benefits can be expected to translate into lower costs for end-investors;
reductions in the risks and costs borne by market participants would be
reflected in lower prices, resulting in lower transaction costs for
end-investors and producing associated beneficial effects on liquidity,” says
Feaunati.
Gavin Blair