IFX FORUM MEETING, JAN. 12-15, TO FEATURE IFX STANDARD UPDATES, WEB SERVICES, ATM/POS IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE; CURRENT AND

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IFX FORUM MEETING, JAN. 12-15, TO FEATURE IFX STANDARD UPDATES, WEB SERVICES, ATM/POS IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE; CURRENT AND

FALLS CHURCH, Va. – Dec. 16, 2003 – The Interactive Financial eXchange (IFX) Forum today announced the program for the group's next meeting, which will be held in Dallas, Jan. 12-15, 2004, and invited both prospective and current members to attend. Highlights will include review and ratification of the latest version of the IFX specification, Version 1.5; release of the Web Services working group's first deliverable; and preliminary publication of an IFX Implementation Guide for ATM/POS applications.

The IFX Forum is a not-for-profit standards-developing organization working to develop a robust framework for the electronic business-to-business exchange of data among financial service institutions around the world. As is the Forum's custom, prospective members are welcome to attend an IFX Forum meeting free of charge, to become familiar with the group's activities before formally joining. Advance registration is required; go to www.ifxforum.org for details, or contact Tim Cochran at 703-970-2056 or info@ifxforum.org.

"We extend a cordial invitation to members of the financial services community who have not yet joined the IFX Forum to be our guests at the Dallas meeting," said Richard P. Urban, IFX Forum president. "With new faces come new insights, which ideally will lead to long-term participation in our work."

IFX specification Versions 1.5 and 2.0 will be prominent topics at the meeting. Following a month-long public comment period, the Forum's Steering Committee is expected to ratify IFX Version 1.5, which extends the ATM, POS, Business and Consumer Banking support provided by earlier versions. The result of several years of implementation experience in various commercial and retail banking applications, Version 1.5 builds on IFX’s multi-channel capabilities to enable it to be used as a core technology for the EFT industry.

Work on IFX Version 2.0, already underway, will continue at the Dallas meeting. Planned as an adaptation of the IFX infrastructure to support emerging standards, it will be designed to support Web Services standards and will include changes flowing from the International Standards Team Harmonization (ISTH) project. The Forum specifically invites companies and individuals who have international payment requirements or are implementing service-oriented architectures to participate in building this next generation of the IFX standard.

Additionally, the Forum's Web Services Working Group intends to release its first deliverable at the Dallas meeting, which will be an assessment of how the IFX specification can be used in a Web Services architecture. The working group's mission is to show how the IFX standard schemas and messages fit into the Web Services infrastructure, to avoid incompatible implementations of Web Services, and to provide comprehensive guidance on the use of IFX with emerging Web Services models, thereby ensuring the stability, flexibility and longevity of the IFX Business Message Specification.

The final draft of an extensive ATM/POS Implementation Guide, designed to help business and technical personnel understand how to use IFX to implement all or part of an ATM/POS solution, will be reviewed. Developed by the Forum's ATM/POS Working Group, this guide will assist parties interested in building an interoperable software application for EFT processing, using the business messages of the Interactive Financial Exchange (IFX) specification.

The IFX Forum holds several face-to-face meetings per year; the next will occur in April, 2004. To facilitate international participation, the Forum is planning to have future meetings in selected international locations. Details will be available at www.ifxforum.org.

About the IFX Forum Membership in the IFX Forum is open to anyone interested in contributing to the development of open financial standards that harness the power of XML. The IFX Forum is currently organized into the following Working Groups: ATM/POS; Business Banking; Electronic Bill Presentment & Payment; and Web Services. IFX Forum Working Groups, in concert with an Architecture Committee to coordinate their efforts, develop open Internet-compatible messages for all sectors of the financial services industry. To learn more about IFX Forum standards or the benefits of IFX Forum membership, please visit www.IFXForum.org.

For additional information:
email info@ifxforum.org
Phone: +1 (781) 876-8811
Fax: +1 (781) 224-1239