Imported from previous forum
January 25th, 2005 - FIX Protocol Ltd. (FPL) announces the production release of Phase I of its Certification Program through selected vendors. Phase I of the Certification Program covers fixed-income products–Treasuries, Agencies and Corporate Securities and provides certification for pre-trade, trade and post-trade messaging. FPL encourages interested parties to contact the Certification Program vendor of their choice in order to begin the certification process.
A year ago, the Certification Working Group was evaluating proposals from vendors interested in being certifiers. In February, FPL announced the certifiers selected and began implementing the Certification Program. Brook Path Partners was retained by FPL to build the test suites and scripts in support of FIX 4.4. By June 2004, the test scripts were developed and by September the certifiers were deploying these scripts and beginning to cross-certify.
The Certification Program aims to provide the fixed income community with a level playing field in disseminating message information using the FIX 4.4 protocol. In addition, the program hopes to lower the barrier of entry towards implementing FIX by creating an agreed upon and verified way to transmit information between counter-parties. In continued efforts to enhance the member value proposition, the Certification Program services will be offered to FPL member firms free of charge through the selected vendors. The vendors may, in their sole discretion, charge fees for the FIX Certification Services to non-FPL member firms. FPL will provide via its website a central listing of firms’ certification status, subject to each firm’s approval. Finally, the Certification Program remains open to vendors who wish to enter the program as a Certifier. Those firms are encouraged to contact the FPL Program Office (fpl@fixprotocol.org or + 1 212 652 4469).
The Certification Program will introduce additional phases to the program by expanding the coverage and cross certification of fixed income products and, eventually, certification beyond fixed income. The Certification Working Group is in the process of prioritizing the next set of products.
About FIX Protocol Ltd
FIX Protocol Ltd. is a non-profit organization that owns the intellectual property rights of
the Financial Information eXchange protocol (FIX), which is provided free to the public. FIX is a globally recognized messaging standard enabling the electronic communication of pre-trade and trade messages between financial institutions, primarily investment managers, broker/dealers, ECNs and stock exchanges. For more information, see www.fixprotocol.org.
About Aegis Software Inc.
Aegis Software is an innovative provider of trading and testing solutions for the global financial marketplace. Aegis’ solutions include: the FCS certification product, which is being used by Aegis to implement the FPL scripts Exchange Simulator and Client Simulator, for functional and performance testing of order management systems; FIX and CMS gateway products; and an algorithmic trading engine called AthenaTrader. Headquartered in New York City, Aegis is renowned for robust, reliable and high performance trading products, and Aegis’ solutions are employed globally by several major banks & brokerages. www.aegisoft.com
About B2BITS
B2BITS has developed its technology from the outset in order to fulfill the original vision
of the FIX protocol as a lingua franca for all financial market participants. Through the
introduction of services at affordable prices, no license fees are charged and all costs are stated in a transparent manner. From inception B2BITS, has sought aggressively to lower the barriers to FIX implementation for all market participants. This has been achieved through the introduction of FIX Engines that provide world-beating performance on entry level hardware, across a range of operating systems and the development of automated testing tools and diagnostics.
B2BITS has offices in London and New York and our customers range from the largest
sell-side brokers through to small hedge-fund operations. To date, over 300 customers
have deployed B2BITS FIX solutions worldwide. Please visit www.btobits.com.
About Brook Path Partners, Inc.
Brook Path Partners provides consulting, training and research on the use of technology
in all phases of the investment and trading lifecycle from research and discovery through
settlement and clearing and beyond to corporate actions and event processing. A
recognized authority on the use of financial protocols, Brook Path Partners actively
contributes to the FIX, FpML and ISO 15022 XML standards organizations. To learn
more about Brook Path Partners please visit www.brookpath.com.
About NYFIX, Inc.
NYFIX, Inc. (Nasdaq: NYFX) is a leading supplier of electronic trade communication solutions and a pioneer in Financial Information Exchange (FIX) technology. NYFIX acquired Javelin Technologies in 2002. The Company’s industry leading FIX engine has over 1,200 installations at more than 350 major buy and sell-side institutions, securities clearing houses, hedge-fund managers, exchanges and ECNs in 25 countries worldwide. NYFIX offers a complete suite FIX solutions, including high availability FIX engines (including a hosted offering), a global FIX network with data center hubs in the US, Europe and Asia, automated FIX certification tools and web-based FIX monitoring software. For more information on NYFIX’s electronic trading solutions, visit www.nyfix.com.
About TransactTools
TransactTools launched the industry’s first enterprise platform for transactional connectivity management in 2001. Since then, the flagship TCM Enterprise platform has evolved to include a comprehensive set of services for managing all aspects of electronic trading connectivity. With the world’s highest-performing financial protocol engine at its core, the platform provides end-to-end capabilities for messaging connectivity, routing, and translation, as well as regression testing and certification, real-time transaction analysis, and exception management across every business system in the enterprise that touches a trade. The TCM Enterprise platform delivers measurable business value through transparency and real-time management of financial messaging, and is currently in production at 17 of the world’s 20 leading financial institutions. For more information about TransactTools products and services, please visit www.transacttools.net.
Contact
Mr. Tom Jordan at: +1 (212) 652-4460 (FPL Program Office)
Ms. Courtney Doyle at: +1 (212) 652-4469 (FPL Program Office)
Mr. Dan Doscas at + 1 (212) 212 526-0747 (FPL Global Fixed Income Committee Chair)
Mr. Max Mansur at + 1 (703) 365-6207 (Executive in Charge – Certification Working Group)