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Corporate action events

ACCU: Accumulation

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ACCU announces that a fund keeps the income it earned during an accounting period inside the fund instead of paying it out. Holders of accumulation units or shares receive nothing, but the retained income is treated as distributed to them for tax purposes.

Code
ACCU
Usually announced as
MAND

What ACCU means

Many funds issue two kinds of units: income (distribution) units that pay out dividends and interest, and accumulation units that keep the income and add it to the value of each unit. At the end of each accounting period the fund announces how much income per unit was accumulated. That announcement is the ACCU event.

No cash and no new units move. The unit price simply already includes the retained income. What matters is the amount per unit: in many tax systems the investor is taxed as if the income had been paid, so the accumulated amount has to be reported to the end investor and added to the tax base (book cost) of the holding.

Entitlement is based on the units held at the end of the period, so the record date or the end of the accounting period decides who receives the tax figure. Unit trusts that use equalisation may also give an equalisation figure for units bought during the period.

When you see it

  • An MT564 with :22F::CAEV//ACCU and :22F::CAMV//MAND, sent by the fund’s transfer agent, the fund platform or the custodian to holders of accumulation units, usually once or twice a year after the fund’s accounting date. The SMPG Event Interpretation Grid lists ACCU as a mandatory event without options, and CSD guides such as Euronext’s place it among information-only events.
  • Compare it with the events on the same fund’s income units: those pay cash and are announced as DVCA, or CAPG for a capital gains distribution. ACCU is the accumulation-unit counterpart with no payment. Do not confuse it with DRIP, where a cash dividend is reinvested by buying units or shares for the holder.

What to do next

  • No instruction is needed and no MT566 with a cash or securities posting should be expected. Close the event in your system without booking cash.
  • Capture the accumulated income per unit and pass it to tax reporting: for many investors it must be declared as income and added to the book cost of the holding, so that it is not taxed again on sale.
  • Check that the record or period-end date matches your position history, especially for units bought or sold around the accounting date.

Where it appears in MT and ISO 20022

MT (ISO 15022)

  • MT564 sequence A (GENL): :22F::CAEV//ACCU, normally with :22F::CAMV//MAND.
  • MT568 sequence A: :22F::CAEV//ACCU when the details are sent as narrative.

MX (ISO 20022)

  • seev.031 CorpActnGnlInf/EvtTp/Cd = ACCU, with CorpActnGnlInf/MndtryVlntryEvtTp/Cd = MAND.
  • The code is in the event type code lists of the current seev.031 to seev.039 versions (for example CorporateActionEventType35Code), though it is missing from a few older code list versions.