Corporate actions automation heats up

New York -- As firms increasingly move towards automated corporate actions processing, "We will see more action in 2004," said Pamela Brewster, senior analyst in the securities and investments group Celent Communications.

"One of the trends I am seeing is that there is more activity, more people are trying to automate," now that the market is more developed, says Brewster, who is preparing a report on the corporate actions market. "There are larger firms that are doing cost/benefit analysis and seeing that automation makes sense," she says.

User firms may also find these deals more attractive because the vendors are more established. "A lot of solutions have been in the market long enough and they have a track