Software Vendors Join With Global Financial Institutions Integrating New E-Commerce Standard for OTC Derivatives Trading

FpML User Symposium to Highlight Progress in Industry Acceptance Using New Standard to Reduce Transaction Time

LONDON, Oct. 25 - Major software vendors in the financial services industry will spotlight the integration of a new e-Commerce standard supporting OTC trading of financial derivatives at a symposium here November 1. Presentations by SunGard Trading and Risk Systems, Cygnifi Derivatives Services, Logica and Kronos Software will focus on the utilization of FpML (Financial products Markup Language) to increase the efficiency of their Internet-based service offerings.

Matt Meinel, Managing Director, Global Head of Fixed Income and Treasury Products Information Technologies at UBS Warburg, will open the symposium with an executive summary of the current status and future direction of FpML, which was introduced to the marketplace in July. Presentations by IBM Corporation and the Chase Manhattan Bank will describe features and benefits of the current release, FpML Version 1.0, and how the standard will integrate with SwapsWire, the online network and protocol venture supported by a group of leading derivatives traders.

Vendor community case studies will be followed by roundtable discussions.

The symposium, to which all participants in derivatives markets are invited, is under the auspices of FpML.org, a consortium* of global financial institutions, information and software vendors and systems integrators. Pre-registered symposium attendees include a veritable Who's Who of the global financial community with an equal mix of vendors and financial institutions represented, an FpML.org spokesperson said.

New E-Commerce Standard for Derivatives Trading (2)

According to Philippe Khuong-Huu, chairman of the FpML.org board of directors, the standard holds promises of halving the estimated £690 million annual cost of processing, speeding the execution and increasing the accuracy of OTC trading in financial derivatives. FpML has already been accepted and is being integrated internally by some of the world's largest financial institutions.

"FpML is attractive because it permits, for the first time, all stages of a transaction to be linked seamlessly along a single software chain," Mr. Khuong-Huu said. "By eliminating costly, time-consuming processes for creating and executing what essentially are unique two-party contracts, FpML is expected to encourage an increasing number of organizations to use derivatives as a means of hedging risk." He said that while FpML.org expects to automate the flow of operation across the entire derivatives network, current emphasis is on interest rate swaps and forward rate agreements.

Visit www.fpml.org for further information on FpML and the symposium