Omgeo, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and the global standard for institutional post-trade efficiency, today announced that Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH) was the first global custodian to go live on the new Omgeo ALERT^SM GC Direct service. This milestone is an important step in improving the management of account information and Standing Settlement Instruction (SSI) data related to the trade settlement processes between global custodians, funds and investment managers, and is the main goal of the SSI Utility.

Under the agreement, BBH is able to maintain and electronically provide SSI data to its clients and/or their investment managers through the use of GC Direct capabilities in ALERT – the industry’s largest and most compliant online global database for the maintenance and communication of account information and SSIs.

Today, many clients and their investment managers maintain their SSI data manually. With BBH live on the service, all clients or their investment managers who leverage ALERT can connect to the global custodian electronically, thereby allowing BBH to maintain and provide SSI data in an automated, secure and efficient manner, designed to reduce operational risk and costs.

Ray Tyrrell, Senior Vice President at Brown Brothers Harriman, said: "BBH is committed to implementing best-in-class solutions and to working with the industry to mitigate risk and enhance SSI data quality. We’re pleased to work with Omgeo using GC Direct in our efforts to deliver improved operational and cost efficiencies to our clients and their investment managers."

The service facilitates the communication of custodian sourced, Securities and Market Practice Group (SMPG) and ALERT-compliant SSI data by connecting BBH’s central SSI repository to ALERT leveraging ISO 20022 messaging. The new GC Direct capabilities also allow custodians to manage data exceptions on behalf of their clients in order to pursue the highest data accuracy.

The launch of GC Direct capabilities marks a significant milestone as ALERT evolves into the industry’s SSI Utility, enabling global custodians to update, maintain, and manage SSI data electronically for the first time. As part of this evolution, future phases of the SSI Utility include support for collateral SSIs as well as an enhanced API for brokers, asset managers and third party transaction services to retrieve SSI information in real-time during trade processing, reducing the need to maintain disparate databases.

Paula Arthus, President and CEO of Omgeo, said: "As the industry continues to reduce risk throughout the trade lifecycle, and with a large number of markets having moved to a T+2 settlement lifecycle, firms are facing increased pressure to ensure efficient, transparent processes are in place across their operations. Further automation of SSI data within custodian banks using ALERT will introduce greater control in the process, improve data quality standards and reduce the risk of trade failures resulting from incorrect SSI data. We anticipate further participation from the custodian bank and asset management community and look forward to continuing to work with the wider industry to realize the full benefits of the SSI Utility."