Imported from previous forum
[ original email was from John Harris - john.harris@bondmart.com ]
If adopted, the SEC’s Big Brother/Total Information Awareness (“Consolidated Audit Trail”) program for financial transactions would render moot FPL and the FIX protocol. As a practical matter, the notion of a voluntary, “industry-driven messaging standard” would be replaced by a coercive, rigid, government-driven set of messaging rules, operating with the force of law. For those members and volunteers who have contributed their time, money, intelligence, experience, energy, and creativity to the improvement of the FIX protocol, cooperation with the SEC’s totalitarian proposal will only work to ensure that their contributions are no longer welcome or necessary.
As proposed, the morally-repugnant, Big Brother scheme requires brokers and exchanges to collect all order information in a “uniform electronic format” - one size fits all, come hell, high water, or innovation. This format could not be changed without government permission, following a formal rule-making process, spearheaded by a new “plan processor” that most definitely will not be FPL. Goodbye, FPL. Your reason for existence was just declared null and void.
Members of the Global Steering Committee can continue to meet, of course, just as FPL can continue to exist, but their meetings will be as pointless as FPL’s continued existence. Sure, they can reminisce about the good, ol’ days, when their ideas actually mattered, presuming their employers or shareholders consider such exercises in nostalgia a good use of their time.
To the extent FIX is adopted as the uniform electronic format envisioned by Big Brother, new protocol versions would be matters of government decree.
There might still be a few opportunities for FIX developers and consultants, but not as independent businesses. They will need to obtain employment either with the plan processor or its prime contractor, which in all likelihood will be a major defense contractor. After all, terrorists or Red China might use manipulation the U.S. capital markets to fund their fantasies of destroying the U.S. Such threats are too important to be left to the likes of a FIX Flyer or Orc.
My friends, the days when you could shirk your responsibilities as citizens and leave politics to others are gone. Even if the loss of your privacy posed by Big Brother doesn’t bother you, the loss of your livelihood should wake you from your slumber. If this vile scheme comes to pass, FIX as we know it is dead.