1. Unique Instrument Identification (UII) - there is broad conceptual agreement on the importance of unique and precise instrument identification and validation of the criteria for uniqueness (see REDAC/RDUG UII paper http://www.fisd.net/referencedata/20030605uiipaper.pdf and UII criteria verification http://www.fisd.net/referencedata/ResponseDESSUGPaper.pdf). Representatives from ISITC, REDAC and RDUG have formed a new working group to develop a best practice recommendation on UII implementation (see UII Terms of Reference http://www.fisd.net/referencedata/ISITC.pdf). The Working Group is just starting its activity to more precisely define and document instrument identification issues associated with securities processing by asset class and function. The next deliverable (June 2004) is a comprehensive problem statement and roadmap of UII related priorities. Operational experts are needed to participate in the activities of the UII Working Group.

2. Business Entity Identification (BEI) - ISO TC68/SC4 has created Working Group 8 to recommend the design and structure of the business entity identification scheme for legal entities and portfolios under management to help automate the order execution, trade allocation and settlement processes -- and to help precisely extract reporting, transactional and relationship information for regulatory compliance and risk mitigation. Working Group 8 is up and running (see WG8 presentation http://www.fisd.net/presentations/20040122%20WG8%20(January%2004).ppt) and is now engaged in working through some of the difficult design and structure issues -- such as -- how to manage multiple beneficial owners of a single entity; representation of a single fund managed by multiple fund managers; and the creation of relational hooks to ensure compatibility with other data models (e.g. Alert and DUNS). Operational experts are needed to evaluate the ongoing recommendations of WG8.

3. Market Data Model and Vocabulary - ISO TC68/SC4 has created Working Group 11 to define all data elements (and their relationships) used by all segments throughout the information chain - from issuance through asset servicing as part of a standard market data model. We believe that common names, values and formats are the logical basis of any reference data strategy within financial institutions. The result of WG11 will incorporate the 15022 data field dictionary and Market Data Definition Language (MDDL http://www.mddl.org/default.asp) specification into a single ISO standard data model. Working Group 11 is up and running and is now engaged in defining the data model components with enough precision to cover the full range of processes and applications (see WG11 Consultation Document http://www.fisd.net/referencedata/N002v2WG11.pdf). Operational experts are needed to participate in the WG11 process.

4. Industry Standard Protocol - there is emerging consensus on the cost savings potential of providing an industry standard protocol to receive and distribute both static (reference data) and streaming (real time pricing) market data. The goal is to achieve economies of scale in design, production and maintenance of datafeeds, processing systems and applications - as well as to capitalize on the extensibility benefits of XML. FISD is working on a proof of concept (called fisdMessage http://www.mddl.org/fisdMessage/2003/1.0-beta/) to compress/compact streaming XML to be as efficient as existing datafeed distribution. We’re looking for organizations interested in evaluating the potential of fisdMessage.