FIX Protocol Limited, the organisation charged with nurturing the front office messaging standard, has expanded its membership beyond its core community of broker dealers and investors to include vendors, exchanges, ECNs and industry associations. The consortium is also raising the profile of its work in the fixed income and derivatives markets.
Michael O'Conor of the US chair of the FIX reorganisation committee says the group has been preparing to open up membership for the past couple of months as part of a major restructuring.
"As with any standard, beyond developing the protocol to meet market needs, concerted effort is required to promote adoption. That's where FPL members can play a pivotal role," he says.
As part of the restructuring, FPL is expanding its product coverage through the elevation of working groups in fixed income and derivatives to the status of global product committees. The global fixed income committee originally began as a group effort between The Bond Market Association and FPL and is chaired by Dan Doscas of Lehman Brothers. The derivatives committee, chaired by Jim Northey of The LaSalle Technology Group, and a consultant for the CBOE, has been working to address derivatives market needs in FIX 4.4.
Alan Line, European chair of the reorganisation committee, comments: "As an industry, we are no longer competing at the protocol level. Using standards reduces time to market and costs. FPL provides the structure for our member firms to work together to realise these benefits quickly and without duplicating efforts."