Custody & Corporate Actions:
Characteristics & Markets

Course Description

Custody is an extremely important area in securities processing. The wide variety of activities that belong to custody make it one of the most difficult areas in financial services. By focusing on custody in general and corporate actions in particular, this course is designed to give participants a good understanding of the activities that are performed by custodian banks today. Although in a strict sense the term corporate actions applies to actions undertaken by corporate entities on behalf of their shareholders (i.e., limited to equities and company-type investment funds), this course covers not only equities, but also the events impacting debt instruments and all types of investment funds.

The objective of the course is to provide participants with a good understanding of the most important corporate actions, such as dividends, splits, exchanges, mergers, annual and extraordinary general meetings of shareholders. A key objective of the course is to establish clear definitions and terminology for the custody area. Although no previous knowledge of custody or corporate actions is required, participants should have at least a basic understanding of equities, debt instruments and investment funds
(cf., the course Financial Instruments: Characteristics and Markets).

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, delegates will have a good understanding of

the importance of custody and corporate actions
the principal activities of custodian banks
the different types of corporate actions for equities, debt
instruments and investment funds
how corporate actions are calculated
general market practice and the players in the custody area
shareholder activism and voting
how corporate actions are processed and paid
standards in the custody area
trends that will impact the future of custody and corporate actions

Target Audience

Anyone working in the area of settlement, custody, portfolio management or fund accounting; anyone who needs to understand custody and corporate actions.