IFX Forum, Inc is a member-driven organization. All of the specification content is the result of the IFX Forum members' efforts. Working Groups are formed by at least three sponsoring members, who commit the time, effort and expertise necessary to address the business requirements and define the content related to specific domains. Working Group participation is open to all members.

 

Typically, both business and technology experts participate in Working Groups. As the Working Groups develop content, they collaborate with the Architecture Committee to avoid duplication and guarantee adherence to the IFX framework. The participants are often implementing portions of the new content as it is approved by Architecture. Consequently, potential implementation snags are identified and corrected before the content is published in the formal standard.

 

In addition to basic banking and financial transactions, the IFX specification addresses the following business areas through dedicated Working Groups.

It is impossible for one standard to address all of the needs of the financial services industry. The IFX Forum works closely with other organizations to foster interoperability.  The IFX Forum has informal agreements or formal Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) regarding:

IFX Forum, Inc. was a founding member of the ISTH workgroup in 2003 along with TWIST, SWIFT and OAGi, which resulted in the initial ISO 20022 specification. The stated goal of that group was to recommend a common core payment message and transaction that could be accepted into each of the standards. The IFX Forum implemented that payment kernel in its 2004 Version 1.6 release.