Investing May 23, 2002

Unemployment Insurance Claims Dip

May 23, 2002 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The number of individuals who filed for unemployment insurance for the first time dipped slightly as the federal program for re-filings wound down, but remained above the key 400,000 mark.
Reported by

Initial unemployment benefits claims dropped by 9,000 to 416,000 in the week ending May 18, from a revised 425,000 the previous week. Economists had predicted a drop of 8,000.

The four-week moving average, which gives a better perspective of labor market trends, fell from 422,750 to 420,000 in the latest week.

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Investing May 22, 2002

T+1 Timing Still Uncertain

May 22, 2002 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Securities Industry Association (SIA)'s Board of Directors will evaluate three scenarios for moving to T+1 settlement in the US at its July meeting.
Reported by

At the meeting, the trade group’s board will decide whether to:

  • retain the current T+1 timeframe of a June 2005 implementation,
  • take T+1 off the table completely, 
  • or postpone a decision on what to do about T+1 until June 2004

Don Kittel of the SIA said,”We could decide not to move to T+1 because the benefits to all players are not there but still opt to promote straight-through processing.”
Key steps to T+1 now in progress include:

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  • implementing central matching services, 
  • reducing certificates, 
  • redesigning the National Securities Clearing Corp.’s Continuous Net Settlement system, and 
  • an array of payment, standardization, corporate actions and securities lending initiatives

Don Kittell, EVP of the SIA, acknowledged that while questions remain on whether one-day settlement is better than three, concerns about whether the industry can move towards a straight-through processing environment without a T+1 mandate as a catalyst abound.


 

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