FIX Protocol Limited and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association have entered a joint agreement to share information on the development of their respective FIX and FpML message standards.
As the front office FIX 4.4 specification allows for inclusion of an FpML product description in its instrument component block, FPL and Isda have agreed to provide a common set of guidelines to ensure the integrity of both protocols and to promote common industry practice. Additionally, FPL and Isda will collaborate on the creation of the FIX 4.4 FIXML schema to ensure standards exist for the inclusion of FpML 4.0 schema definitions within a FIXML schema message.
Likewise, the FpML 4.0 specification introduces a messaging architecture to support the business processes required for OTC derivative-related transactions that are identical or similar to those required by the FIX Protocol.
FPL and Isda have therefore agreed to create a common set of processes for transactions that apply to both FIX and FpML supported instruments. This will ensure that users who elect to implement FpML within a FIX infrastructure and users who implement FpML within its own messaging framework will have common process models and messages to enable standard industry practice.