The International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. (ISDA) today released the Recommendation for Version 5.0 of its Financial products Markup Language (FpML). Version 5.0, a complete re-release of the standard, is the first major FpML release since 2004 and should further drive and facilitate the industry’s focus on automation and standardization in the derivatives pre- and post-trade and reporting space.
Version 5.0 contains a number of important technical and design changes, including the introduction of Views, a revision of the messaging framework and use of multiple root elements. The Views allow for the development of a reporting framework in FpML by combining the richness of the product representations with the necessary flexibility for reporting. The Views also facilitate better support of additional life cycle processes such as pre-trade and risk.
In addition to these changes, recommendations from a cross-product task force have increased the consistency of the product representations and rationalized the business process definitions. The expanded coverage in this version includes new sets of clearing messages and reset and activity reporting.
Version 5.0 is available on the FpML website (www.fpml.org). As it is not backwards compatible, ISDA will continue to support the 4 series of the FpML standard for existing coverage in parallel with the 5 series for a limited time. The recommendation for version 4.8 will be released later this month. Version 4.8 contains additional support for commodity and equity derivatives.
Looking ahead, the next release in the 5 series, Version 5.1, will include the redesign of the existing coverage for FX and syndicated loans and incorporate the work of the collateral working group.
