For
Immediate Release, Thursday, July 1, 2005
For More Information, Please Contact:
Courtney Doyle, FPL: + 1
212 652-4469, fpl@fixprotocol.org
Peter Randall, FPL: +44 778
654 3388, peter.randall@fixprotocol.org
Tom
Buschmann, TWIST: +44 207 934 3627, Tom.Buschman@shell.com
FIX, FpML, AND TWIST to Collaborate on FX Standards
July 1, 2005 - FIX Protocol Ltd. (FPL),
the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. (ISDA) and TWIST
Process Innovations Ltd., signed a Statement of Understanding outlining a
collaborative approach in developing and using a common industry protocol for
the Foreign Exchange markets.
In this joint effort, FPL,
ISDA and TWIST will work together and provide resources to undertake a product
coverage and business process gap analysis with regard to the FX coverage in
their respective standards – FIX, FpML and TWIST. This gap analysis will serve
as the basis for future developments in the FX area.
The three organizations
believe that agreeing on the universal business meaning of information and
message scenarios covering the financial trading processing chain and utilizing
common messaging standards, will enable and encourage the end-to-end straight
through processing of foreign exchange messages between industry
counterparties, without regard to the network(s) used, the platforms employed
or the operating systems utilized.
Scott Atwell of American
Century Investments and FPL Global Steering Committee Co-Chair commented,
“Through the collaboration of these three standards bodies, we will now be able
to more clearly define and articulate the ‘spaces’ each standard serves, to
leverage the unique capabilities each provides, and to attempt to avoid the
appearance of duplication.”
The three standards
bodies will capitalize on their extensive expertise with XML-based
representation and share resources in this regard.
“By supporting
the individual standards and building on the XML expertise of all three organizations,
we aim to achieve greater efficiency of transaction processing in the foreign
exchange industry to the benefit of all its participants,” said Robert Pickel, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director,
ISDA.
The Statement
of Understanding was developed on the basis of meetings and discussions
involving various industry leaders, including representatives of the three
standards bodies.
Tom Buschman,
chairman of TWIST, said: “Processing Foreign Exchange
transactions involves transacting counterparties and many service
providers. Where counterparties may differ but processes are the same, it makes
sense for likeminded standard organisations to work
together to deliver harmonized standards. This accelerates the ability for the
market to obtain benefits from high degrees of automation and enhanced low-cost
market access. TWIST is firmly committed
to make the collaboration with FpML and FIX a success and a major stepping
stone in effective harmonization of standards for financial service processing.”
A copy of this Statement of
Understanding is available on the respective organizations’ websites.
About FPL (www.fixprotocol.org)
FPL is a non-profit
organization that owns the intellectual property rights of the Financial
Information eXchange protocol (FIX), which is
provided for free in the public domain. FIX is a globally recognized messaging
standard that enables the electronic communication of pre-trade and trade
messages between financial institutions, primarily investment managers, broker/dealers,
and exchanges. An entire industry of order management
systems, network services, and software service providers have grown out
of the evolution of FIX as the front office messaging standard. FIX presently
exists in two syntaxes: “tag=value” format, and XML
format (FIXML). Within FPL, the Foreign Exchange Working Group has been engaged
with Foreign Exchange industry professionals to expand the development and
adoption of the FIX Protocol message suite to support Foreign Exchange
transactions.
About ISDA (www.isda.org)
ISDA is the global trade
association representing leading participants in the privately negotiated
derivatives industry. ISDA was chartered in 1985, and today has more than 650
member institutions from 47 countries on six continents. These members include
most of the world's major institutions that deal in privately negotiated
derivatives, as well as many of the businesses, governmental entities and other
end users that rely on over-the-counter derivatives to manage efficiently the
financial market risks inherent in their core economic activities. Financial products Markup Language (FpML) is
the business information exchange standard for electronic dealing and
processing of financial derivatives instruments, developed and maintained by
ISDA. FpML establishes the industry protocol for sharing information on, and
dealing in, financial swaps, derivatives and structured products. It is based
on XML (Extensible Markup Language), the standard meta-language for describing
data shared between applications.
About TWIST (www.twist.org)
TWIST
Process Innovations Ltd. creates global standards that enable the end-to-end
automation of any company’s financial dimension of business processes. TWIST (Transaction Workflow
Innovation Standards Team) develops
practical standards that allow market participants to communicate
electronically with each other, whether using direct links, external service
providers or internal systems. TWIST
brings together representatives of leading corporate treasuries, banks, fund
managers, system suppliers, electronic trading platforms, market infrastructure
providers (including confirmation matching services, clearing & settlement
services and communication networks), consultancy firms and learning organisations. TWIST is open to market participants and
service providers, irrespective of their size or role in the market place.
