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What is FIX Protocol Limited?
FIX Protocol Limited (FPL) is the non-profit industry association that is responsible for defining, managing and promoting increased usage of FIX as an enabler for electronic trading. This benefits the industry by facilitating greater transparency, straight-through-processing and cost savings.

Since its inception the FIX Protocol has developed significantly and its history represents one of our industry's truly unique success stories. FIX is now the de facto messaging standard for the electronic communication of equity trades and is developing momentum within the derivatives, fixed income, and foreign exchange markets. However, its potential to further improve the trading process and provide new capabilities for all industry participants is limitless.

Technical and business professionals from FPL member firms coordinate their activities and organize their work through a series of committees, subcommittees, and working groups, all overseen by a Global Steering Committee. This committee aims to ensure consistency of protocol application as it is extended into new markets, asset classes, and phases of the trade lifecycle. In addition to the rigorous engineering and technical efforts undertaken to ensure the ongoing applicability of the protocol to financial-market systems, the FIX Protocol benefits from an energetic educational and marketing effort that seeks to keep the specification viable, relevant, and responsive to the needs of market participants.

Why was FPL established?
The origins of the FIX Protocol date back to the early 1990s with its history representing one of the truly unique success stories within the financial services industry. FIX began, and continues today, to be defined, managed, and promoted through the collaboration of volunteers who also use the protocol. In 1998, these collaborating firms established FIX Protocol Limited (FPL), a not-for-profit organization, to promote adoption of the protocol. Establishing a legal entity provided the ability to collect membership dues and to contract and fund services key to managing and expanding the use of FIX, such as developing and hosting the FIX website.

In today's environment, FPL plays an even greater role with respect to intellectual property and other concerns. Member firms have also realized that being solely dependent upon volunteers can be limiting and often results in an inequitable distribution of work. As a result, FPL has taken steps over the past several years to engage service providers to help supplement the efforts of volunteers, to expand the scope of what FPL is able to accomplish, and to support the operational aspects of the organization. FPL has been able to increase its capability to fund projects and services. FPL's membership base has more than quadrupled since it began its membership expansion effort in 2002. FPL now benefits from a membership that spans the financial services sector and includes Buy-side and Sell-side firms, Exchanges/ECNs and Vendors of FIX based products and services. The financial support provided by the membership enables FPL to:

• Engage service providers with the expertise to supplement volunteer efforts so that the work required to constantly develop FIX in response to industry requirements is possible
• Continuously promote the adoption and increased usage of electronic trading practices and the FIX Protocol within new sectors and regions globally through a range of educational initiatives
• Legally protect the intellectual property of the protocol so that the industry can confidently continue to use it as a free and open standard, while also enabling others to build and support commercial products and services based upon it
• Continue to develop the FPL website and its discussion forums, which enable over 50,000 registered users to access the latest specifications, FIX-related news and other information

How will FPL Membership benefit my Firm?
Firms that choose to become members of FPL enjoy the unique opportunity to participate, influence, and promote the development and use of the protocol they use to conduct business on a daily basis. Simply put, FPL member firms contribute to the success and ongoing viability of the FIX Protocol protecting and enhancing their FIX-related investments, in addition to increasing their ability to implement and benefit from the protocol.

FPL Member firms receive a wide range of advantages which are detailed on our Membership Benefits page. We welcome your firm's participation in the organization and we would be more than happy to discuss any questions that you may have about membership. For further information, please contact the at +44 (0)20 7936 9047 or email .