DTCC’s Omgeo Alert signs up first custodians

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation’s (DTCC) Omgeo Alert has signed up the first two custodians to its GC Direct system.

Brown Brothers Harriman and J.P. Morgan are now live on GC Direct, which allows global custodians and prime brokers to be able to take on a more collaborative role in standing settlement instructions (SSI) maintenance.

Six prime brokers have also implemented DTCC’s Omgeo Alert for prime brokers supplying SSIs to hedge funds.

Omgeo Alert offers a global database for the maintenance and communication of account information and SSIs.

Currently, the Omgeo Alert contains more than six million settlement instructions, up 16 percent from 2014.

Bill Meenaghan, executive director of DTCC’s Omgeo Alert, said: “Over the course of 2016, Omgeo Alert will aim to extend coverage of client SSIs in its database, moving towards the SSI Utility’s goal of 100 percent coverage, which will allow brokers to retire their internal SSI databases.”

“As the year progresses, more SSIs will be managed by the global custodian instead of manually by the investment manager—further ensuring accurate SSIs in DTCC’s Omgeo Alert. This move will help to address the issue of trade failures, 30 percent of which are caused by inaccurate settlement instructions.”