IFX FORUM ANNUAL MEETING TO BE HELD IN LONDON, APRIL 26-30

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IFX FORUM ANNUAL MEETING TO BE HELD IN LONDON, APRIL 26-30

Current and Prospective Members Invited;
IFX Educational Seminar on April 26 Open to All

FALLS CHURCH, Va. – March 17, 2004 – The Interactive Financial eXchange (IFX) Forum has announced the program for the group's annual meeting, which will be held in London, April 26-30, 2004. Both prospective and current members are invited to attend.

A special feature for this event will be a half-day educational seminar on the IFX Forum and the IFX Business Message Specification – an ideal opportunity to learn about the mission of the IFX Forum and the underlying design of the standard. The seminar is open to all at no charge.

Other program highlights will include election of new IFX Forum officers and directors and intensive working sessions for the IFX Forum Web Services, ATM/POS and Business Banking working groups. The Bank of America is hosting the meeting at its Canary Wharf location. A cocktail reception following the first day's seminar will welcome attendees and provide an opportunity for networking.

"We're enthusiastic about having our annual meeting in London, because it enables more European-based companies to participate, whether they are members already or want an introduction to our work," said Richard P. Urban, IFX Forum president. "The Forum has been very active on the international payments front and looks forward to welcoming our European partners to our annual meeting."

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. Although there is no fee to participate, all attendees must register online or via email by April 21: go to www.ifxforum.org for details, or contact LeAnn Wilson at info@ifxforum.org.

Prominent at the meeting will be ongoing development of the latest version of the IFX specification, Version 2.0. An adaptation of the IFX infrastructure to support emerging standards, it is being designed to support Web Services standards and will include changes flowing from the International Standards Team Harmonisation (ISTH) project – a partnership with TWIST, SWIFT and OAGi, in which the IFX Forum is an active participant. The Forum specifically encourages 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.

The preliminary agenda for the IFX Forum London annual members meeting is as follows:
Monday, April 26, 2004
1:00pm - 5:00pm Education Session: IFX 1.5 BMS
5:00pm - 7:00pm Cocktail Reception
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
9:00am - 5:00pm Business Banking Working Group
9:00am - 5:00pm Web Services Working Group
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
9:00am - 3:00pm ATM / POS Working Group
9:00am - 3:00pm Business Banking Working Group
9:00am - 3:00pm Architecture / Web Services Working Group
3:00pm - 5:00pm IFX Annual Member Meeting (IFX Forum Members only)
Thursday, April 29, 2004
9:00am - 5:00pm Architecture Committee
Friday, April 30, 2004
8:30am - 5:00pm BOD/Steering Committee Meeting (Board Members only)

The IFX Forum holds quarterly face-to-face meetings per year, and the next will occur in summer 2004. To facilitate international participation, the Forum holds periodic meetings in selected international locations, as well as in North America. Details of the summer meeting 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