ISDA, the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) and the International Securities Lending Association (ISLA) have announced the appointment of FINOS to provide a repository, with a view to fostering the growth of an open-source community for the Common Domain Model (CDM).

In May 2022, the associations invited potential host organizations to provide a service proposal to meet the requirements of providing such a repository for the open-source CDM, which establishes a single, common digital representation of trade events and actions across the lifecycle of financial products. The requirements included maintenance of the CDM code, facilitating the growth of a community to contribute to the development of the CDM, allowing for governance of the contributions to be overseen by the associations, and assisting in building awareness of the CDM.

“Having a completely transparent, open-source CDM maintained by @FIONSFoundation and supported by three trade associations will help accelerate #adoption, bringing greater consistency across #derivatives, #repo and #securitieslending,” said ISDA CEO @ScottOMalia

— ISDA (@ISDA) September 8, 2022

The appointment of FINOS will advance the development and increase the speed of adoption and distribution of the CDM, with a view to migrate to FINOS by the start of 2023. The model will then be distributed on an Apache license standard for open-source software.

The associations will announce once migration is complete and describe how institutions can contribute when it occurs. Contributions are encouraged by either contacting the associations or visiting the portal website.

“Having a completely transparent, open-source CDM maintained by FINOS and supported by three trade associations will help accelerate adoption, bringing greater consistency across derivatives, repo and securities lending. It will also avoid fragmentation of standards and duplication of effort across the industry,” said Scott O’Malia, ISDA’s Chief Executive.

“The collaboration with FINOS marks a milestone in promoting open and common standards across financial markets. The CDM, as a cross-industry initiative, plays a key role in supporting the digital transformation of capital markets, fostering interoperability and cohesiveness through FINOS’s open-source framework,” said Bryan Pascoe, ICMA’s Chief Executive.

“Fostering an open-source community through FINOS’s global reach and resourcing will ensure faster development and convergence on standards,” said Andrew Dyson, ISLA Chief Executive. “Appointing FINOS moves forward the long-term strategy agreed on by the associations in our Memorandum of Understanding, and importantly should ensure acceleration of adoption. I look forward to working with the FINOS team and the other associations on the migration.”

“We are thrilled to have been selected to host the Common Domain Model as a FINOS open-standard project and grow the open-source community around it,” said Jane Gavronsky, Chief Technology Officer of FINOS. “An open, standard representation of transactions and events will bring many benefits to the industry and will significantly advance the much-needed data and process interoperability across the business lifecycle.”

Further information on the CDM can be found via the below links:

ISDA resources on the CDM

ICMA resources on the CDM for repo and bonds

ISLA resources on the CDM

Source: ISDA