SecFinex has developed an initial draft standard, SFXL (Securities Financing eXtensible Markup Language), which will standardize the transfer of information on securities finance transactions. Future enhancements will encompass securities inventories and the post-trade servicing of securities finance actions such as trade matching, billing and marking to market. A common standard will make it much easier for companies to share and exchange data, thereby streamlining operations and increasing efficiency.

SFXL will be an open standard, freely available to all service providers and participants in the securities financing arena. The draft standard is to be offered to FpML, the financial services industry organization that oversees development of XML industry standards for the financial derivatives industry.The 10 service providers have agreed to incorporate these standards in their systems provided to securities finance customers. For more information email us Info@sfxl.org

XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is a flexible way to create common information formats and share both the format and the data on the World Wide Web, intranets, and elsewhere. For example, computer makers might agree on a standard or common way to describe the information about a computer product (processor speed, memory size, and so forth) and then describe the product information format with XML. Such a standard way of describing data enables a user to send an intelligent agent (a program) to each computer maker's Web site, gather data, and then make a valid comparison. XML can be used by any individual or group of individuals or companies that wants to share information in a consistent way.

Carol Kemm, Director of SunGard Securities Finance (SSF) GLOBAL ONE, commented "in our position as software provider to a client base of over 250 firms using SSF products as their core securities finance solution, we are extremely aware of the size of the problem faced by market participants seeking more efficient STP. We believe that the development of this standard will provide a positive step forward in facilitating greater efficiency, and associated cost savings, for many of the system integration issues faced today."

Malcolm Clark, from Anvil Software, remarked, "Electronic market trading such as offered by SecFinex is the way of the future. Advanced industry players are connecting their front office trading and position management systems to electronic markets. This gives them the full power of the markets at their fingertips. The SFXL standard will ultimately make market-to-front office and front-to-back office integration so much easier."

Rupert Perry, chief executive of Pirum Systems said: "Pirum are pleased to be supporting the SFXL initiative to develop open, freely available message standards for the securities finance industry. We believe these message standards will substantially reduce the cost of systems integration, enabling industry participants to quickly and easily link their systems to other customers and service providers."