Minutes from the FIX within Indian Markets Meeting
Kathleen Callahan (Meeting Coordinator) / FIX Protocol Ltd.
12 Nov 2007 9:00PM ETMeeting Minutes
The goal of this group is to create a ‘Business Practices’ document that identifies the business requirements for electronically trading India via FIX. The document will provide information and will aim to identify any gaps in the current FIX protocol versions.
Scope of work
• Cover both Equities and Futures.
• FIX versions 4.0 – 5
• Testing scenarios and guidelines
• Benefits
Known issues:
Natasha pointed out that the following tags that were specific to India.:
• Tags 65 and 111
Joel advised of a current issue with exchange reporting; It is difficult for buy-side firms to identify which exchange the trade took place. Guidelines were issued to use the ‘Last Mkt’ for this purpose but implementation by vendors system providers and buy side firms has been slow.
Questions answered:
Various questions were raised by the local India players. These are outlined below:
India Question: Will there be any FIX hubs to provide certification for FIX capabilities?
Natasha advised that although certification is not something that can be enforced by FPL but a series of scenarios were developed by the Fixed income committee that have proven successful when testing. Examples of specific scenarios for India to be worked on by a sub group and circulated and to be incorporated into the business document.
India Question: Is there any cost/benefit analysis of using DMA?
Representative from NSE (National Stock Exchange) advised that past experience indicates that the introduction of DMA causes volumes to jump 15-20%.
Further benefit analysis is available in the FIX implementation guide. Exact location of this to be circulated to the goup.
India Question: What is the current extent of FIX usage in India?
An India participant advised that six or seven brokers have begun filling orders from FIX.
Question: Who is driving this initiative?
It was advised that there is buyside pressure to get FIX enabled.
The following two topics were identified as key for discussion during the February seminar in India:
Order management systems are expensive and the cost is creating a bottleneck for firms to adopt FIX.
Identify the benefits to the exchange for enabling DMA.
Natasha asked participants to identify any additional barriers that they feel will hinder the adoption of FIX; please post all items on the India discussion forum (http://www.fixprotocol.org/discuss/54). The roadblocks that are identified will be accumulated and discussed during the February seminar.
Action Items:
Begin the review process with Equities and Futures: Review standard messaging
Natasha will capture FIX messages from various firms and compare them to identify tags that are consistent across messages. Participants are asked to forward FIX message examples to nbonnerf@lehman.com .
Natasha suggested that the Indian participants download the implementation guide on the FIX website. (http://fixprotocol.org/implementation-guide/) Edward suggested putting this suggestion on the India forum to ignite interest.
