Tax Certification Services for Issuers

Cross-Border Issuance

Acupay’s tax certification services enable foreign issuers to tap into previously inaccessible markets, helping issuers to expand their suite of foreign investments by accessing new buyers. Accessing these markets can be attractive for a number of reasons. For one, investor diversification could present significant opportunities to expand an issuer’s base of creditors, thereby also diversifying across currencies. Another opportunity for foreign issuers entering into cross-border markets is the potential to obtain funding in their primary currency at more attractive rates by initially issuing in a foreign currency. What’s more, the issuance of cross-border bonds can help both domestic and foreign market participants foster a more sustainable sense of trust and understanding between the two parties in relation to their institutional operations and partnership.

The types of securities overseen can include fixed and floating rate fixed-income; extendable short-term notes; preferred shares; American Depository Receipts (ADRs); medium-term notes (MTNs); Euro Commercial Paper (ECP); and U.S. Commercial Paper (USCP).

Over the past decades, Acupay has fostered close relationships with a number of CSDs and financial intermediaries, such as Euroclear, Clearstream, DTC, the National Bank of Belgium, Monte Titoli (Italy) and others. Our tax certification and tax compliance services for issuers mainly rely on standard Know Your Customer (KYC) principles and support paperless tax certification in all cases where domestic laws allow it.

We typically begin working for our issuer clients in the pre-issuance phase of a security offering, introducing tax certification and compliance procedures into the deal documentation and examining the procedural documentation (and related disclosures) to ensure full compliance with all legal and regulatory requirements. We then translate these requirements into operational procedures for financial intermediates--working closely with CSDs while also making sure that all necessary mechanics are reflected in the Acupay System. More detailed information on the Acupay System below.

Acupay Market Solutions

Although the processes of facilitating cross-border relief may vary from country to country, Acupay is diligent in keeping abreast of these regulations to ensure compliance across many different markets. We have extensive experience in Italian, Belgian, Israeli and Japanese markets, to name a few, although we do support many more.

For more information on Acupay’s solutions for issuers across various markets, such as Yankee bonds, Panda bonds, Kangaroo bonds or Maple bonds, or to discuss how Acupay might assist you in any given country more specifically, please feel free to contact the Business Development Team at +44 (0) 20 7382 0340 in London or via email at product@acupay.com.

The Acupay System

Acupay System Features

A Powerful Tax Relief Processing Engine

The Acupay System is an innovative web-based information processing platform which enables the efficient handling of tax relief requests on securities such as fixed-income and equity securities such as bonds, shares, deposit receipts, commercial paper, and hybrid instruments. Users of the Acupay System include domestic and international clearing systems, custodian banks, brokers, as well as commercial banks and retail brokers across North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Australia. Since 2005, the system has been employed by over 2,200 of the largest custodian banks on behalf of over 1.1 million investors located in 180 nations.

Information First, Paperwork Second

The underlying principle of the Acupay System design is “information first, paperwork second.” Custodian banks (or investors themselves) can input their information into the System in as detailed or general format as the market requires. Regardless of the nature of the data, one of Acupay’s unique principles is to consider this investor information as the core element of entitlement processing. With this approach, Acupay can offer (i) seamless tax relief over an investor’s entire portfolio of international securities and (ii) efficient tax relief processing for the entire investor population for a debt or equity security. Depending on the source market of the investor's income, the Acupay System supports withholding tax relief via three channels: Relief-at-Source, Quick Refund, and Withholding Tax Reclaim. If you are unfamiliar with the distinctions between these channels, please refer to our Glossary.

Designed with Back-Office Staff in Mind

Developed by Acupay with back-office staff in mind, the Acupay System is tailored to integrate-seamlessly with back-end procedures and systems, heavily reducing the use of physical or manually processed certificates to accompany each request for certification, entitlement, or reclaim. The Acupay System interface is flexible, allowing custodian banks to either be guided step-by-step through a number of simple screens in order to submit a single tax relief request, or upload multiple of rows of investor data in one go, therefore streamlining tax relief requests and making the process hassle-free and efficient.

Acupay is fully SWIFT-enabled and compatible with ISO-compliant messaging, and also supports a variety of secure communication methods, including secure web services (HTTPs) and secure file transfer protocols (SFTPs). The Acupay System also synchronizes seamlessly with other platforms operated by Acupay, such as the Acupay Wizards (for generation of forms) and the Bondcom platform (which supports tender offers, exchange offers, and consent solicitations). Acupay is also able to build customized interfaces for the System’s users upon request.

Documentation Generation & Management in the CORE Library

The Acupay System generates any relevant documentation while also flagging any documentation that will have to accompany any given tax relief request. Tracking elements are provided in the form of unique barcodes which allows the documentation to be automatically matched to electronically stored investor data. The Acupay System’s CORE Library grants easy access to all tax certificates that have been entered into the system – from tax residency certificates issued by the investor’s local tax agency to bulk "Know Your Customer" confirmations created by a custodian. Where required for tax relief purposes, Acupay also manages the collection, tracking, and mailing of document originals.

For more information about the Acupay System, feel free to contact the Business Development Team at +44 (0) 20 7382 0340 in London or via email at product@acupay.com. You can also access the Acupay System here.