21 Mar 03: ISO Messaging Standard Working Group Expects Work  Done  by Q3

The International Standards Organization (ISO) working group expects to wind down operations by the third quarter of 2003, having achieved its objective to create an XML version of the 15022 messaging standard.

The industry will complete the cutover to the ISO 15022 messaging standard from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication’s (Swift) 7775 MUG standard by the end of May. The cutover will be followed by the launch of a 15022 repository and then migration to an XML-enabled version of the 15022 standard soon thereafter.

These introductions are expected to be completed by the third quarter, at which time the working group will discontinue operations.

The working group was created by the ISO’s technical committee for banking and securities – known as TC68. The group’s intention is for the ISO 15022 standard to become the de facto standard for messaging in the securities industry.

The repository will be an electronic warehouse for the industry’s messages. All messages in the repository will be standardized around XML, including the Financial Information exchange (FIX).

The ISO group says the project to make the ISO 15022 standard XML-compatible will result in the release of a second edition of the official ISO-document that describes the ISO 15022 standard and the introduction of the repository, which is slated to contain the building blocks for al future financial messages (not only in securities but also in other domains of the financial industry).

Before that can be achieved, the group must secure an industry-wide agreement on a single financial repository. The various market practitioners must define an agreed set of definitions for all relevant business elements, an agreed set of standardised messages, based on these business elements, and an agreed way to use the messages.

 The official second edition of the standard is in the ISO approval process and should be approved by the third quarter of 2003. Meanwhile, two projects have started building parts of the single financial repository: one is focusing on the “securities pre-trade” area and the other on the “securities post-trade” area.

The ISO group says the implementation will have no impact on the existing ISO 15022 messages that are defined in the ISO 15022 Catalogue of Messages. These messages will remain available as long as they are required by the industry.