The Depository Trust & Clearing Commission has enhanced its Networking solution to help fund firms comply with the Securities and Exchange Commission's Rule 22c-2.

The new functionality will go live in early August, said DTCC spokesperson Karen Gregory.

Rule 22c-2, which was adopted by the commission in March 2005 and will become effective on October 16, 2006, seeks to curb short-term trading and market timing by requiring mutual fund firms to enter into agreements with their intermediaries obligating them to provide funds with shareholder trading information. The rule also permits funds to impose a redemption fee should they determine that the fee is needed or appropriate to recoup costs that short term trading can impose on funds and long term shareholders.

In a news release on Monday, the DTCC said the capabilities of Networking, a mutual fund service provided by the National Securities Clearing Corp., have been expanded to help fund firms better monitor trading frequency by investors whose transactions are housed in omnibus accounts and ensure that a fund's market-timing policies are being enforced. NSCC is a subsidiary of DTCC.

A robust data stream within Networking has been created to enable fund companies to request and obtain shareholder identity and trading information from intermediaries, according to the release.

"The regulators have pressed for a solution, and we are pleased that we have the technology to be able to develop a solution to meet the October timetable," said Barbara Simon, vice president of product management at DTCC. Intermediaries can pass information in two stages, the first being the summary data level, where information will be passed for super onmibus accounts, those made up of multiple plans, trusts and/or investor omnibus accounts, DTCC officials said.

The second stage is at the detail data level, where the fund firm may utilize the data from the summary level to request more specific information.

The enhancements to Networking were developed by DTCC together with the Investment Company Institute's Standardized Data Reporting Working Group and several task forces. 

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