Cost Basis Reporting Technology: Tools for Easing Requirements and Enhancing Existing Functionality

Cost basis reporting continues to be a focus for brokers and technology vendors. As challenges continue to mount, new tools have entered the space. These tools are not positioned as full cost basis reporting solutions, but instead target specific pain points in the cost basis reporting requirements.

In a new report, Cost Basis Reporting Technology: Tools for Easing Requirements and Enhancing Existing Functionality, Celent provides a follow-up to The Cost Basis Reporting Vendor Landscape 2011. Whereas the previous report compares full cost basis reporting solutions in the North American market, this report focuses on tools that address targeted aspects of compliance requirements for tracking and reporting cost basis.

“There are still challenges around calculating cost basis. One area that has gained a lot of attention has been corporate actions tracking and adjustments,” says Alexander Camargo, Analyst with Celent’s Securities & Investments group and the author of the report. “Adjusting for corporate actions requires extensive databases and the ability to track the origin of a security. Many brokerages are looking for solution providers to aid in corporate actions cost basis adjustments. Additionally, existing providers looking to enhance their services can supplement their solution by partnering with providers that have extensive corporate actions experience.”

This report will provide several examples of providers who are offering tools in the space to enhance broker offerings around cost basis reporting. The vendors featured in the report are: Interactive Data Corporation, NetWorth Services, and Wolters Kluwer Financial Services.

Celent has also identified integration between systems as a major challenge in cost basis reporting. In order to showcase these challenges, Celent has highlighted the steps that Fiserv has taken to ensure proper integration and reconciliation between systems.
This report explores specific challenges in the cost basis reporting market and provides examples as to how specific vendors are addressing these challenges with targeted tools. This will provide financial services firms and other technology providers with valuable use case scenarios.