The Bond Market Association and FIX Protocol Ltd. (FPL) have forged an alliance to develop a common industry protocol for global fixed-income market securities.
It is intended the development of a common set of protocols for the global fixed-income industry will alleviate incompatibility concerns among the various electronic trading platforms. FPL is currently extending FIX business-level messages into the new ISO 15022 XML repository.
Dexter Senft of Lehman Brothers and chairman of the Association's Subcommittee, says; "Both the Association and FPL have been making significant advances toward the development of common protocols...This combining of efforts represents a major step toward the goals of promoting efficiency and expediting initiatives related to straight-through processing and T+1 settlement."
Under the agreement, the Association's Protocols/Standards Subcommittee will merge into FPL's Fixed Income Working Group (FIWG). The newly constituted FIWG will create two focus groups: a technology focus group that will address design and implementation issues and provide rapid response to inquiries from the group's participants, and a business practices focus group that will develop appropriate business practices for electronic trading in additional sectors of the global fixed-income market.
The FIWG will have balanced representation from the two entities and will divide the reporting responsibilities. A member of the Association's Online Bond Steering Committee will be appointed to chair the new FIWG.