UK clearing house Bacs and treasury systems vendor Eurobase have become the first direct sponsors of Twist, as part of an effort to put the not-for-profit standards outfit onto a more formal footing.
Established by the treasury operations department of Shell in 2001, the Treasury Workstation Integration Standards Team now represents the interests of over 70 financial market participants and service providers in defining communication standards for commercial and financial processes.
Tom Buschman of Shell, who co-ordinates Twist activity, says the growth in uptake of the collective's FX and money market standards and the imminent release of XML-based payment standards, has created a need for a more formalised organisational structure.
"This sponsorship will enable us to move Twist forward on a number of fronts," he says. "From incorporating Twist as a not-for-profit Company Limited by Guarantee, which protects the intellectual property rights and the Twist brand-name, to enhancing the publication of the actual XML schemes for the standards that we have developed."