Released: May 11, 2003

Regulators Survey Industry's Straight-Through Processing Readiness

Calgary - The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) are surveying the ability of market participants to use electronic rather than manual processing interfaces in-house as well as with other firms in the industry. Firms are asked to respond to an online survey of their Straight-Through Processing (STP) readiness between May 9 and May 30, 2003.

"As regulators, we have a responsibility to ensure Canada's capital markets are equipped to meet the industry's future needs and to continue to match global competitors' achievements," said Stephen Sibold, Chair of the CSA and of the Alberta Securities Commission. "Straight-Through Processing is a crucial requirement of our market's future. It requires all industry players, large and small, to remove the manual and redundant systems and processes from the entire lifecycle of a securities transaction. For that reason, we are probing the industry's readiness with an online survey of STP preparedness."

The objectives of the survey are to:

• assess the degree of support for in-house initiatives required for STP;
  
• identify the relative significance of the issues that need to be addressed to achieve STP;
  
• assess the current commitment of resources to STP; and
  
• provide a baseline against which to measure progress towards STP through subsequent surveys.

Industry Initiative
The Canadian Capital Markets Association (CCMA), an organization founded in 2000 by participants in the Canadian financial services industries to identify and recommend ways to meet the challenges and opportunities faced by our capital markets, is promoting STP strategies among market participants. The CCMA's STP milestones show interim goals in 2004, with the final milestone being the achievement of STP by mid-2005.

The CSA is an umbrella organization for the 13 securities regulators of Canada's provinces and territories to coordinate and harmonize regulation of the Canadian capital markets.

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