Memories are fading of Wall Street's pre-Digital Age paperwork crisis, whenback offices' inability to keep up with trading documentation forced the New York Stock Exchange to shorten its hours and lengthen settlement deadlines. The specter of capital market paralysis brought fiercely competitive banks onto common ground; in 1973 they formed Depository Trust Co. to standardize and ultimately automate posttrade work flows. "Industry participants recognized that centralizing functions within a marketutility could provide enormous economies of scale to drive down processing costs while also mitigating risk," Michael Bodson, president and CEO of what is now Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., wrote in a recent article.
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