Announcement | Solactive releases a new Daily Corporate Action File (DCAF) |March 2020

SOLACTIVE AG is pleased to announce the release of a new corporate action file, which has been designed to add greater insight and granularity to the reporting of upcoming corporate action events and to advise clients of the resultant changes to index composition. The Daily Corporate Action File, referred to hereafter as DCAF, will replace the existing corporate action file as the primary source of corporate action information dissemination.

The DCAF contains 212 columns of data (128 of which are currently populated) up from 18 in the outgoing file.

• The additional fields provide for every part of an event and its resulting treatment to be defined (terms, dates, identifiers).
• It allows for improved machine readability with the main data points occupying specific cells rather than being included within a text string.
• Operations at Solactive can also supply clear definitions of the treatments to be applied in addition to a verbose description of ECA events.
• Many fields have been left blank to allow for the future provision of additional information, without requiring changes to the overall parameters of the table.

The production of the Daily DCAF will begin after a technical update on March 7, 2020, with first distribution on March 9, 2020, the file will be delivered automatically to all clients during the 20:00 (Frankfurt Time) notification group.

All existing corporate action files will be delivered alongside the new DCAF for a period of six months, ending on (close) August 31, 2020. Our clients are kindly advised to inform all relevant departments of the introduction of the DCAF, we encourage you to transition to the DCAF file at the earliest opportunity, ensuring that you receive the most detailed and up to date information. The DCAF file will directly become the primary and reference corporate action file produced by Solactive – the legacy files will not be delivered after the end of August 2020.

The Advanced Corporate Action file which had been delivered as part of testing has identical contents to the DCAF. The DCAF will be delivered in addition to the existing file with the only change being the new naming convention. 

All new Indices set up after March 7, 2020 will receive the DCAF only. 

The DCAF has been designed to facilitate the automated consumption of corporate action information, enabling the timely and efficient integration of the growing volume and complexity of corporate action information into the client’s processes. Our clients will have the possibility to choose their preferred way of receiving the DCAF between FTP and/or email. The DCAF will cover all pending corporate actions taking place in our indices, notifying our clients in advance and helping them to plan ahead and reduce the risk of missing announcements.

As mentioned, the delivery of the DCAF will available via FTP and/or email and can be provided in either .xls or .csv formats. The DCAF file will always contain upcoming announcements for both CA and ECA events, (we have removed the option to exclude ECA events or separate the ECA and CA Events into separate files). Initially, the delivery format will match the delivery settings of the outgoing corporate action file, i.e. if you receive the current file as a .csv file by email the DCAF will also be delivered as a .csv file by email. We can update the delivery options at your request. 

FILE NAMING CONVENTION

DELIVERY OPTIONS

EMAIL: If the outgoing corporate action file is delivered by email currently, then the DCAF will also be delivered by a second separate email to the same email distribution list. You will receive both files daily. Daily corporate action emails will be sent with an email subject line matching the name of the file it contains:

SOLACTIVE – FTP: If the outgoing corporate action file is provided by FTP, then the provision of the old file will continue uninterrupted with the file path unchanged and in addition, the DCAF will be delivered to a new location. This will ensure there is no conflict between the availability of the two files, allowing you to manage your own transition to the consumption of the new file. The new path address will follow the naming convention <OLD FILE PATH/DCAF>. You will receive both files daily.

CLIENT SIDE – FTP: If the outgoing corporate action file is delivered to a client’s FTP, then the delivery of the old file will continue uninterrupted with the file path unchanged and in addition, the DCAF will be delivered to a new location. This will ensure there is no conflict between the availability of the two files, allowing you to manage your own transition to the consumption of the new file. It is proposed that the new path address will follow the naming convention <OLD FILE PATH/DCAF>. The index user will be required to set up the matching FTP file location. Should you need delivery to an alternative file path please reach out to us at the following email address: DCAF@Solactive.com. You will receive both files daily.

FILE CONTENTS

The DCAF is split into nine main sections:

• Instrument Information
• Sector Information
• Event Information
• Instrument Change Information
• Corporate Action Information
• Late Dividend Information
• Acquisition Information
• Spin-off Information
• Additional Information

A technical description file has been provided, both in the initial announcement email and hosted on Solactive’s website. The file provides a description of each data point alongside a technical definition of the values that can be present and the data types to be displayed. The description file also provides example DCAFs showing features, formatting and available data points for a variety of event types.

Please address any questions regarding the contents or the delivery of the Daily Corporate Action File (DCAF) to DCAF@Solactive.com or call Equity Operations on Tel.: +49 (69) 719 160-410

DCAF DESCRIPTION FILE