Introduction

Corporate actions are processes initiated by listed companies that affect the securities they issue and therefore also their shareholders. Examples of typical corporate actions are dividend distributions, share splits or consolidations as well as mergers or takeovers.

The Investment API facilitates end-to-end processing of the entire corporate action (CA) lifecycle, including pre-notification, processing, reporting and cash and securities settlement of corporate actions.

The way the notification comes to the relevant recipients is that clients register for the corporate action notification events. Technically, this way they will always be supplied with the latest information, as each corporate action triggers such an event.

This guide describes how notifications of corporate actions are implemented so that you and your users are fully informed about upcoming corporate actions and their impact on users' investments.

Corporate action lifecycle

1. Notifications

   Notifications are the first phase in the lifecycle of a corporate action. Generally, corporate actions are usually announced weeks before they become effective and settled (i.e. booking of cash and/or securities). During this period, information about the nature of a corporate action becomes available and is distributed to market participants.

   Once a corporate action has been initiated, notifications of the impending corporate action are distributed in advance.

2. Transaction report

   The affected addressees then receive reports on the transactions executed as a result of the aforementioned corporate action.

Corporate action types

The Investment API currently supports notifications for the following types of corporate actions:

• cash dividends (cash-based dividends)

• capital distributions

• shares premium dividends

• intermediate securities distribution

• dividend option

Next steps

Read the next chapter to find out how you can register for a corporate action event and what such a notification looks like in detail.