Institutional Trade Processing

ALERT allows buy-side clients to set up or edit accounts and maintain the SSIs associated with those accounts. Buy-side clients can link accounts to a set of existing instructions they have created using models, or SSI maintenance may be handled by Global or Regional Custodians by both the web service as well as by GC Direct, for those (GC) Direct-enabled global custodians and prime brokers. Account access can be restricted to only those broker-dealers with whom you actively trade, and your permissioned broker-dealers are notified of your instruction changes by the electronic Alerting process within ALERT. You can also retrieve broker-dealer SSIs online when needed.

ALERT features relevant to buy-side clients are: ALERT Web, Global Custodian Direct, ALERT ASSIsT, and ALERT Plus.

Find more indepth guidance for each ALERT feature from the links or Related Content Section on this page. 

ALERT facilitates the communication of a wide range of settlement instructions to our sell-side clients who receive updates to settlement instructions from the buy-side via an electronic Alerting process within ALERT. Sell-side clients also retrieve settlement instructions on a trade-by-trade basis through enrichment within the Institutional Trade Processing (ITP) service suite. To expedite processing, the sell-side can link the buy-side's account codes (Access Codes) to their own internal account numbers (Broker Internal  Accounts or BIAs) which ensures the retrieval of Alerts that pertain to those specific buy-side accounts of interest.

ALERT features relevant to sell-side clients are: ALERT Web and ALERT Direct.

Find more indepth guidance for each ALERT feature from the Related Content Section on this page. 

With ALERT GC Direct, custodian banks and prime brokers can electronically manage settlement instructions through ALERT on behalf of their buy-side clients. This enhanced custodian and prime broker access enables them to become the owner and maintainer of SSIs using dedicated ISO 20022 compliant messages. The automated exchange of SSIs between a custodian’s central repository and the ALERT host ensures sensitive settlement data is secure. Future effective SSI updates can also be managed so custodian banks and prime brokers can proactively update their buy-side clients of pending market changes.

ALERT features relevant to custodian banks and prime brokers are: ALERT Global Custodian Web, ALERT Global Custodian Direct for Global Custodians, ALERT Global Custodian Direct for Regional Custodians, and ALERT Plus for Global Custodians.

Find more indepth guidance for each ALERT feature from the Related Content Section on this page.

The Product Administrator plays an important role in administering your organization’s access rights and profiles for ITP products, liaising between your organization and the DTCC. Their responsibilities include:

• Managing users
• Managing other product administrators
• Updating product profiles
• Monitoring existing requests

Learn more about Product Administrators and their administration tool, Service Central.

Data Authentication (DA) is the process that the ALERT platform uses to authenticate the entry, deletion, and modification of ALERT platform data. It can be used by both broker/dealer and investment manager client types and can be applied to the following data types:

By default, Model and Account Settlement Instruction changes will require a minimum of two levels of Data Authentication for F/X, Cash and Derivative instructions. Clients can then choose to apply Data Authentication to other data types. The levels of authentication are defined as follows:

• None
• 2 levels (Creation + Approval)
• 3 levels (Creation + Approval + Authorization)

Clients can therefore set up their users to be Creators, Approvers and/or Authorizers, however the same user can not complete 2 subsequent steps in the Data Authentication process. Using Manage My Services, individuals who have been designated as a Data Authentication Administrator controls the roles applied to other users and the number of levels of authentication required.

DTCC highly recommends that you promptly action any pending items in your Data Authentication queues.

For more in-depth information about how to access Service Central, visit ITP Cross-Product - ServiceCentral.

Data Authentication Functionality

The following video provides further details on how to manage and use the Data Authentication functionality:

1. Log in to ServiceCentral. If you don't already have an account you can register for one.

2. Under Product Services select More Requests and Forms, followed by DART Data Dump Report.

3. In the ALERT Acronym field, enter your own ALERT acronym.

4. Depending on the type of data you want to be included in the extract, populate the fields below as shown in the table. When requesting counterparty data, you can select all acronyms or specify those that you require access to.

5. For Settlement Model Instruction requests, if you want to restrict the data extract to certain Country, Security or Method types, please specify.

6. If you are a broker requesting counterparty data (Scenarios 1 and 2), answer the additional questions under Additional options for Broker clients. If you want to include BIAs, the DART report will include your BIA number in the data extract where one exists. If you only want to include cross-referenced accounts, select Cross-referenced Account only. Otherwise, choose All Institution Accounts. 

7. Complete all billing information.

8. Once all information is complete, click Submit. You will receive a confirmation email from DTCC Client Operations confirming your request.