The contract with F&C (formerly Foreign & Colonial), one of the leading proponents of the front office Financial Information Exchange messaging standard, positions RadianzNet as a key network for the FIX community.

Swift's FIX initiative was being undertaken as a joint development programme between Financial Fusion and bankrupt messaging carrier Global Crossing. The implications of Global Crossing's Chapter 11 filing for Swift's future strategy for the front office is not yet clear.

Radianz is keen to take advantage of Swift's discomfort. In September, the company combined with TransactPlus - a network services provider which uses technology spun out of JPMorganChase - to develop an alternative IP-based service for financial institutions with guaranteed delivery of high-value electronic transactions.

In the front office, Radianz offers peer-to-peer FIX services through its rFIX product line. It also offers access to a range of FIX services directly from third party users of the network, including FIX messaging hubs, FIX ASP services, and FIX testing, certification and translation.

Salomon Smith Barney, UBS Warburg, Merrill Lynch, CSFB, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Deutsche Bank, and others will be among the first firms to trade with F&C via RadianzNet.

Alan Line, who serves as F&C's director of dealing and is a long-term standard-bearer for the FIX protocol comments: "Radianz understands our business and has an extranet with the market reach that can bring together trading partners in a quick, smooth and cost-effective manner. We also believe Radianz has the commitment and vision to become the dominant FIX network solution for the global equity community."