IFX Forum's Global Initiative Creates XML Architecture for Online Financial Transactions

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IFX Forum's Global Initiative Creates XML Architecture for Online Financial Transactions

Alexandria, VA, March 23, 2000 - The Interactive Financial Exchange (IFX) Forum, established to integrate interoperable and online financial transactions around the world, is accelerating the widespread adoption of Extensible Markup Language (XML) messa

Alexandria, VA, March 23, 2000 - The Interactive Financial Exchange (IFX) Forum, established to integrate interoperable and online financial transactions around the world, is accelerating the widespread adoption of Extensible Markup Language (XML) message specifications, ultimately providing the retail consumer with enhanced financial services products and value added applications.

Released early this year, the IFX Forum's proposed business message specification, Version 1.0.1, will complete an initial 60-day public review. The IFX Version 1.0.1 specification, with accompanying document type definition (DTD), the XML overview and data dictionary is scheduled for release March 24, 2000, for a final 30-day member and public review with approval expected April 26, 2000.

"The financial services industry needed one open complete standard to serve its needs," said Kit Needham, senior director of BITS and chairman of the IFX Forum. "Enabling diverse financial entities to communicate worldwide, this new standard will support multiple applications desktop- or web-based to perform an array of financial functions."

The IFX Forum is developing specifications that facilitate such financial services as global online banking and bill presentment and payment within the financial services market. An active player in the insurance industry, the IFX Forum formed a cooperative relationship with ACORD, the nonprofit insurance standards organization. ACORD sits on the IFX Forum Steering Committee and currently contributes property and casualty business messages based on the IFX XML architecture.

"Insurance organizations are embracing the open standards approach that the IFX Forum and ACORD are promoting," said Kevin Schipani, group manager of Research and Development at ACORD. "ACORD is pleased that the IFX Forum is incorporating our members' work into the IFX framework."

In addition to the insurance work group, the IFX Forum is comprised of four additional work groups, including electronic bill presentment and payment, XML implementation, server-to-server, and business banking. Currently under development are the investments and securities and loan applications work groups along with the Open Financial Exchange (OFX)-to-IFX conversion task group, charged with identifying migration issues. The IFX Forum boasts an active Board of Directors, comprised of leading e-commerce representatives from AT&T Corp., Bank of America, BITS, CheckFree Corporation, Citigroup, N.A., EDS, FleetBoston Financial, IBM Corporation, Integrion Financial Network, Intuit Inc., Just in Time Solutions, Microsoft Corporation, PaineWebber Incorporated, S1 Corporation, and Wells Fargo Company, and receives managerial support from the Data Interchange Standards Association.

"We believe that establishing uniform standards for transferring account-related information between financial institutions and to retail customers is crucial," said Scott G. Abbey, PaineWebber's chief information officer. "Participation by financial services companies and technology firms will facilitate broader acceptance of online financial services, accelerate the introduction of new and innovative products and reduce costs."

"We believe the IFX Forum will be a strong force in focusing the industry," said Douglas S. Thompson, president and CEO of Just in Time Solutions. "With ever-increasing reliability on technology, this standard will supply enhanced financial services to multiple users throughout the world."

The IFX Forum, open for worldwide participation, was founded to provide a variety of benefits for financial services companies and their customers and focuses on promoting the development and adoption of the IFX specification. The IFX Forum members develop open and interoperable specifications that meet the Financial Services Industry business requirements for serving consumer and corporate customers. The mission of the IFX Forum's open membership is to expedite the development and implementation of the IFX specification, which defines the business message format for the electronic exchange of data.

Membership in the IFX Forum is open to organizations from around the world, such as financial institutions, banks, brokerages, billers, insurance companies and vendors. In addition to the above-mentioned Board members, the IFX specification has had active participation from Bluegill Technologies, Bowstreet.com, Inc., Chase Bank, Corillian Corporation, Fifth Third Bank, Fiserv, Huntington National Bank, NCR, NETdelivery Corporation, Trisense Software, LTD., YourAccount.Com, and many others. To learn more about the IFX Forum, visit http://www.ifxforum.org/.

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