A#

5913

P&S #:

5483

DATE:

October 13, 2004

TO:

ALL PARTICIPANTS

ATTENTION:

MANAGING PARTNER/OFFICER, OPERATIONS PARTNER/OFFICER,DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

FROM: Product Management
SUBJECT: Billing Modernization

NSCC is pleased to announce the deployment schedule for our Billing Modernization initiative. We will be conducting a coordinated rollout of revised NSCC and DTC invoices: if you are a customer of both companies you will receive notices from both companies about this deployment.

What’s New?

Billing Format
The redesigned NSCC invoice has been formatted to make it easier to read and understand.

The design of NSCC's new invoice is based on the recently released "User's Guide to the NSCC Fee Schedule" available at http://www.nscc.com/legal/nsccfeeguide.html. (For more information on the User's Guide see NSCC Important notice A#5866, http://www.nscc.com/impnot/notices/notice2004/a5866.htm) For each item that appears on the invoice, the item description is based on the wording used in the User's Guide. The order in which the items appear in the invoice is based on the order of items in the User's Guide.

Also, you will note, in the User's Guide, that each item is identified by a "fee number." These fee numbers will also appear in the invoice, allowing a positive verification of which fee relates to which items on the invoice.

A mocked-up sample of a NSCC invoice is available at http://www.nscc.com/impnot/pdf-files/a5913.pdf  - you can download this sample today and review it to get a preview of the appearance, organization, and usability of the new invoice.

This design has been based on comments and suggestions received from many customers, in industry meetings, NSCC customer satisfaction surveys, focus groups and, most significantly, the DTCC Billing Advisory Panel. NSCC would like to acknowledge the contribution made by each customer who has been a part of this effort.

Electronic Delivery
The invoice will be sent by e-mail to designated individuals at each customer firm. (See "Registration" below, for information on how to designate individuals from your firm to receive invoices by e-mail.) Included, as an e-mail attachment, will be a copy of your firm's NSCC invoice.

The file will be an Adobe Acrobat (.PDF) file. You will be able to view the invoice, and print it locally, using the Adobe Acrobat Reader program. We find that most of our customers already have this program. If you do not, you can download a complimentary copy by using your browser to access http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html 

Spreadsheet Option
As an added service to our customers, we will be providing an option to receive a copy of each invoice in a spreadsheet format. The spreadsheet version of the invoice will aid firms wishing to perform calculations on data from the NSCC invoice, whether for allocation of NSCC fees across the customer firm's business units, or for reconciliation of activity reported on NSCC's invoice with activity recorded in the firm's own books and records.

Customers will be able to register for the use of DTCC's SMART/Search document retrieval service. Upon approval of the registration, customers will be able to log in to SMART/Search and download the spreadsheet file. Normal DTCC usage fees will apply for the issuance of a SMART/Search logon, and for access to SMART/Search. If you would like to apply for access to the spreadsheet option please contact your relationship manager.

The spreadsheet will be provided in the form of a comma separated value file (.CSV) - this type of file offers no formatting or built-in formulas but it is also less likely than other spreadsheet formats to be infected by hostile code. A sample NSCC invoice in CSV spreadsheet format can be found at http://www.nscc.com/impnot/pdf-files/a5913.csv

Historical Archive Option
You may never need to access NSCC's historical archive of invoices - you will receive every month's invoice electronically and it should be easy for you to keep your own archive. However, NSCC will maintain a twenty-four month archive of invoices in SMART/Search. Access will be subject to the registration requirements and usage fees of SMART/Search. Starting in December, if you would like to register for access to the historical archive via SMART/Search, please contact your relationship manager.

Timeline
We plan to deploy the new billing system to full production in December, following several months of pilot and parallel testing. The timeline of events follows:


October 2004

November 2004

December 2004

January 2005

You will receive your NSCC invoice for September's activity in the traditional format, delivered using the same delivery method used today. A small group of customers who have agreed to support our pilot testing will also receive an additional copy of the NSCC invoice for September's activity, but in the new format.

You will receive your traditional NSCC invoice for October's activity. In addition you will receive a copy of the reformatted invoice for October's activity, delivered to you by e-mail. NSCC's collection of your invoice payment (e.g., via settlement) will be driven from the traditional invoice. The new invoice is presented for your review, so that you can familiarize yourself with it. This is your opportunity to assess if the changes to our invoice have any impact on your firm and plan for any changes to how you receive and process these invoices.

Our new Billing System will be fully deployed to production. You will receive a copy of the reformatted invoice for November's activity, delivered to you by e-mail. NSCC's collection of your invoice payment (e.g., via settlement) will be driven from the new invoice. You will receive one final copy of NSCC's traditional invoice for November's activity, which you may use, if you wish, in reconciling the new invoice.

Your NSCC invoice for December's activity will only be available in the new format, distributed via e-mail. The traditional invoice format and the traditional distribution method will have been retired.

Compatibility
NSCC will discontinue posting invoices to PC Web Direct after the November distribution of the NSCC invoice for October activity. Customers needing to retrieve a copy of the invoice are encouraged to consider the historical archive option or, as an alternative, the spreadsheet option.

Registration
Most of our customers are currently receiving NSCC invoices by e-mail every month. If this includes you, you do not need to do anything. You will automatically be signed up to receive the new NSCC invoice by email. You should receive an e-mail message in late October confirming that you have been registered to receive NSCC invoices by e-mail.

If you need to see your firm's NSCC invoice and you are not currently receiving NSCC invoices by e-mail contact your Relationship Manager to sign up.

Please direct comments or questions about this announcement or any aspect of NSCC's Billing Modernization program to Dwight Arthur, Product Manager for NSCC Billing, at 212-855-1087 or Dwight.Arthur@dtcc.com or contact your Relationship Manager.