FIX Protocol Limited (FPL), the organisation responsible for the development of the FIX messaging standard, has terminated certification negotiations with TradeAssure, a joint venture company formed by The Open Group and the Securities Industry Automation Corporation, with Hewlett-Packard as a strategic partner.
TradeAssure was established in response to a Request for Proposals issued by FPL in 1999 for a vendor to create a certification service to increase standardisation of FIX (Financial Information eXchange) protocol implementations. It was expected that FPL would participate with a syndicate of investors to fund the development of agreed TradeAssure certification procedures.
The scheme may be the first major STP project to be overtaken by rapid ongoing advances in e-commerce and electronic transaction processing.
In a statement, FPL comments: "After extensive discussions of business plans and in light of developments involving electronic trade and the use of FIX in the marketplace, the investment syndicate and TradeAssure determined that the business models being considered were not viable. They agreed that the syndicate would not participate by investing in TradeAssure."
The TradeAssure business plan was expected to include the development of extensive application notes, comprehensive test scripts and a process for certifying the compliance of an organisation's FIX implementation.
Certification is viewed as desirable to support the protocol's penetration of pre-trade, trade and post trade messaging.