The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift) is to move into the securities front office in a partnership with Financial Fusion and Global Crossing aimed at providing a FIX hub messaging solution for brokers, investment managers, exchanges and ECNs.
Under the terms of the agreement, Swift will host a FIX hub on its SwiftNet IP-based messaging platform. Financial Fusion will provide the software that will power the hub, which will route, monitor and manage FIX message traffic between industry participants. In addition, Swift will also support FIX point-to-point messaging via SwiftNet.
Testing and piloting of the solution will commence in Q1 2002, with planned commercial roll-out in Q2 2002.
Swift says the solution will enable it to provide the front and back offices of securities firms with standardised messaging services that cover the entire transaction lifecycle. Ultimately, these services will facilitate translation between the various versions of the FIX protocol and other standards, including ISO 15022.
Leonard Schrank, CEO, Swift, says: "With this deal we can provide a framework for moving from multiple bilateral connections to a single, standardised connection with multiple counterparties. From what, in many cases were insecure connections to completely secure connections."