Under this agreement, FPL and IPMA will work together by sharing market expertise and collaborating in the extension of FIX to encompass the Fixed Income New Issue marketplace.

Representatives from both organisations will jointly serve on FPL's Global Fixed Income Committee (GFIC) to further expand the FIX Protocol and extend it to New Issue invitations and book building.

FPL and IPMA will utilise the IPMA Match XML Schema as the basis of technical discussions regarding the extension to the FIX standard and will perform a "gap analysis" against the FIX Protocol. IPMA Match is an online New Issue network which reduces the costs and increases the efficiency of the business process. The primary achievement of this initiative has been the development of an industry-wide messaging system and a standard for essential new issue transaction functions in fixed income securities.

Dan Doscas of Lehman Brothers and FPL Global Fixed Income Committee Chair stated, "Member firms continue to seek efficiencies and automation opportunities within fixed-income primary markets. FIX 4.4 protocol provides the opportunity to automate and working with IPMA will provide the necessary business support."

"The cost-saving standardisation of best market practices and documentation has been at the core of IPMA's role in the international capital markets. The introduction of the IPMA Match Service further extends these principles to the electronic systems supporting the new issue process. IPMA looks forward to working with FPL to contribute to developing an open standard for the international primary markets," Cliff Dammers, Secretary General of IPMA stated.