Report

Attendance at the December MDDL Working Group Meeting was very good - with quite a few new faces including new members Access International Financial Services (FISD member) and Financial Technology International (MDDL member). The meeting quickly diverged from the planned agenda due to questions raised during the previous day's FISD General Membership Meeting. The main topics of discussion - Where is MDDL currently positioned? What are current development plans? On which domains should MDDL focus?

Where is MDDL currently positioned? It is positioned very well indeed!

• MDDL has solid footing in common equities, mutual funds, and indexes (although fixes for the latter are pending).
• Recent discussions with several market data vendors and exchanges have positioned MDDL as the language of choice for reference data - such is the goal of the Reference Data Coalition (REDAC) recently formed as part of FISD's Reference Data Initiatives.
• The London Stock Exchange announced that it will use MDDL for its new security master file product that is being restructured consistent with its SEDOL enhancement efforts (for all listed securities).
• Another similar organization is considering MDDL for its security master file product.
• The Bond Market Association has announced that it will use MDDL for its new standard master database.
• Liaison with ISO 15022 has progressed well - SIIA/FISD/MDDL is being established as an official Liaison Organization with ISO/TC68/SC4 representing the market data subsegment of the financial information industry.
• Companies have registed interest in developing MDDL to handle the following content: Corporate Actions (all classes), Options on Equities, Foreign Exchange, and Bond Pricing. (See below for those that have a firm commitment.)
• Several technical-savvy individuals have asserted the need for a "query" mechanism to make requests for MDDL data.

What are current development plans? There are many (volunteers needed - priority given to those providing support)!

• Setup for Equities, etc. as needed for Reference Data initiatives (REDAC, LSE, etc.)
• Corporate Actions for the above
• Adjustments to conform to ISO 15022 as necessary
• Options for Equities (with a member)
• Fix quoting for Indexes
• Bonds as necessary to support BMA effort
• Query mechanism to fill-out the specification
• More examples and fuller documentation
• MDDL verification tool - as a "processing rules" validator

On which domains should MDDL focus? In priority order:

• ISO 15022 adaptation (a subset of the following...)
• Reference Data initiatives (including setup and Corporate Actions)
• Options for Equities (firm commitment from member guarantees this will get done)

Agenda

Meeting Time: 17 December 2002, 09:00-10:30 Eastern
Location: Bloomberg, 499 Park Avenue, New York, NY
Dial-in: +1 703.925.2410, Passcode: 6313710

General:

• Welcome New Members
• XML for Market Data Conference in March

Interactive Status To Date (Summary Presented at FISD General Meeting on 16 December):

• Review of Amsterdam
• Website & Communications - New Postings and Migration
• Specification - 2.0-beta and 2.0-draft
• Liaison - Cross-industry Protocol Group and ISO 15022
• Vocabulary - Bonds, Bonds, and, um, Bonds

Specification:

• Currently Supported Interests - Bonds, Options, Foreign Exchange
• Next Steps - Corporate Actions, Equity Setup, Bond Pricing, Query/Response, Documentation
• Change Requests - Review and Recommend Disposition (to be posted 11 December)
• Discussion - What is needed? Who can help?

Industry Model:

• User Firm Business Case - Status and Discussion
• Mapping of FISD Members to Model

Application Support:

• Complete Documentation - Beyond Basic Schema Documentation
• Verification Tool - to Validate MDDL Documents Interactively