NTM: Network Trade Model
Focus: Capital Markets Instruments, Straight Through Processing Events, Static Data
DTD or Schema: Available with registration here.
Website: www.risk.sungard.com/ntm
Contact: sally.clarke@risk.sungard.com
Founding & Key Members:
SunGard Trading & Risk Systems
Organization: NTM is run by the SunGard Standards Unit, an internal group within SunGard. SunGard allows users to propose changes and extensions to the NTM message, while maintaining version control, documentation and backward compatibility.
Background: SunGard devised The Network Trade Model (NTM) as an XML-based messaging specification in order to integrate its own numerous products, both internally and at client sites.
NTM defines trades, trade data and lifecycle events and other relevant formats that can be used with relevant SunGard systems. It covers a range of financial product asset classes, including interest rate derivatives, securities, foreign exchange, loan and deposits and commodities.
The specification covers areas similar to the industry-wide initiative Financial products Markup Language (FpML), which defines over-the-counter derivatives. SunGard began its NTM initiative a year before FpML came into existence and says that in order to implement XML in a speedy manner it opted to continue with its own specification.
SunGard is now heavily involved with the FpML organization and in the first half of 2001, launched its Standards Converter to provide support and interoperability for customers adopting FpML. The Standards Converter converts NTM messages into FpML and vice versa, via four stages: validation, pre-processing, transformation, and post processing.
The company also plans to support other industry initiatives as they emerge, including FIXML and ISO, using the Standards Converter.
SunGard maintains control of the specification through its central NTM repository, which stores all the NTM definitions. If a new use is proposed, the Standards Unit review it and add it to the repository. Conversion services are supplied between versions to allow for backward compatibility.