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ISO 20022-UNIversal Financial Industry Message scheme (UNIFI) is a new international standard published in 2004 which defines the ISO platform for the development of financial message standards. Its business modeling approach allows users and developers to represent financial business processes and underlying transactions in a formal but syntax-independent notation. These business transaction models are the �real� business standards. They can be converted into physical messages in the desired syntax. At the time UNIFI was prepared, XML (eXtensible Mark-up Language) was already the preferred syntax for e-communication. Therefore, the first edition of UNIFI proposes a standardized XML-based syntax for messages. The standard was developed within the Technical Committee TC68 � Financial Services, of ISO - the International Organization for Standardization.

ISO 20022 will be of interest to financial institutions that want to streamline their communication infrastructure and associated costs, by opting for a single, common �language� for all financial communications, whichever the business domain, the communication network and the counter party (other financial institutions, clients, suppliers and market infrastructures).

UNIFI is targeted at the following standards initiatives that are generally driven by communities of users looking for more cost-effective, XML-based communications to support specific financial business processes:

Standard Body	What it is?	Applicable To	Business Aspect
MDDL	Market Data Definition Language	Broker, Dealer , Investment Banks	Equities (ordinaries), Mutual funds, Indices, Bonds, Foreign Exchange, Futures, Corporate actions
FIXML	Financial Information Exchange	Banks, Broker, Dealers, Institutional Investors, Stock Exchanges, Utility Industries.	Securities, Derivatives, Equities, Future & Options, Fixed Income, Foreign Exchange
FinXML	Extensible Markup Language for Capital Market	General Financial Institutions and other organization.	Straight Through processing, Risk Management, E-commerce over the Internet.
VRXML	Vendor reporting Extensible markup Language	NYSE and its Vendors	Market data billing, reporting and inventory management.
RIXML	Research Information Exchange Markup Language.	Buy and Sell side firms	Investment and Financial Research. Makes it easier and more efficient to categories, aggregate, compare, sort and distribute research data.
XBRL	Extensible Business reporting Language	All Organisation	Data from different companies and different accounting system can be assembled if the sources are upgraded to use XBRL
FpML	Financial Product markup Language	All buy and sell side firms	Over the counter Derivatives
IFX	Interactive Financial Exchange Forum	Financial Services Companies	ATM/POS, Electronic Bill Presentation and Payments, Business banking, Web Services, Branch Banking Services
TWIST	Aims to assist organisations in implementing effective and controlled straight through processing, with single points of data entry, from end to end of the relevant processes.	Corporate treasuries, Banks, Fund managers, System Suppliers, Electronic Trading Platform, Confirmation matching services, Clearing Settlement services	Wholesale Financial Market transaction Processing, Commercial payments & collections, Working capital finance, Cash Management and STP of end-to-end relevant processes.
SWIFT	Society For Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication	Banks, Broker & Dealers and Investment managers	Payments, Securities, Treasury and Trade
RosettaNet	Development and deployment of open e-Business process standards	Any Organisation any size across the globe	Collaborative commerce, Global Supply Chain
OAGi	Open Applications Group, Inc.	Any Organisation any size across the globe	XML solution architected to support integration needs both outside the enterprise and inside the enterprise using Web Services, CRM, Logistics, Core Components, Semantic Integration
ACORD	Is the insurance industry's nonprofit standards developer, a resource for information about object technology, EDI, XML and electronic commerce in the United States and abroad.	Agents, brokers and other data partners in the insurance, reinsurance and related financial services industries.	Life & Annuity, Property & Casuality/Surety, Re-Insurance
ISTH	International Standards Team Harmonization (IFX, OAGi, TWIST and SWIFT, UN/CEFACT,RosettaNet)	All Financial Institutions and Corporates	Core Payment XML Kernel, Reconciliation, Direct Debit, Bank Statement
OMG	Object Management Group. It is not-for-profit consortium that produces and maintains computer industry specifications for interoperable enterprise applications.	Computer Industry	Model Driven Architecture that separate business and application logic from the underlying platform. Applicable for J2EE, .Net and Web Services.

Infotech�s ISO 20022 compliance methodology is as follows:

Phase	Tasks Involved	Result
Data Dictionary	Interfaces between the business components to be studied in detail.	Message Components, Message Elements and Message Rules
Message Mapping	Identify relevant XML schema from the ISO 20022 repository Tailor the business process and message concepts to meet the standards or use the standard extensions if available	Message format as per ISO 20022 standard
Messaging Solution	Indentify the suitable Messaging Engine from the market. Specify the integration requirement between Application/Service components and the Messaging Engine.	Messaging Engine Product, Integration specification for messaging engine.