OMG Adopts Conversion Models for Payment Message Standard.

NEEDHAM, Mass. -- The Object Management Group[TM] (OMG[TM]) announced approval of an important new standard, "Conversion Models for Payment Message Standard" (CM4PM). Visa Inc., IBM, IP Commerce and FireStar Software submitted the standard to the OMG's Finance Domain Task Force (FDTF) with support by SWIFT and Adaptive Technologies. The new standard specifies, using a UML[R] meta-model, a common protocol and a common language, following ISO 20022, for the financial industry to use when converting information in one message into another.

CM4PM lets financial institutions correctly map information in legacy financial message formats into ISO 20022 (UNIFI) compliant formats. Facilitating and mediating payments information across a number of message formats is a high cost obligation for financial institutions. The OMG's FDTF investigation revealed multiple message conversions can lead to errors and mistakes that annually cost the industry several billion US dollars. The standard also provides a migration path to new message formats. As an example, the CM4PM standard can help financial institutions readily comply with Single European Payments Area (SEPA) requirements without rebuilding of current systems.

"There has been significant progress in completeness, interoperability and adoption of standards since 2003, when we predicted that through 2007, multiple XML standards would be used in financial services," said Mary Knox, Research Director, Investment Services, Gartner. "We recommend that companies make mapping and transformation among industry and proprietary standards, including utilization of a data dictionary, part of their integration infrastructure."1

"The OMG Finance Domain Task Force, through the leadership of Visa Inc. and FireStar Software has created an elegant standard that simplifies message information conversion," said Richard Mark Soley, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO of the OMG. "The OMG is proud of the result and the substantial benefit this approach will bring to financial services. The CM4PM standard is the first of several important initiatives the FDTF have been pursuing to reduce costs and improve quality and security for financial transactions."

"As a company who has been working with the leading global financial networks, we are pleased with the value proposition the OMG CM4PM Standard provides," said Mark Eisner, Co-Chair of the OMG FDTF and CTO for FireStar Software. "Applying fundamental OMG principles such as modeling, reverse engineering, and decomposition has made it possible for this new standard to deliver its value. FireStar has worked hard to complement the standard with a product implementation that will realize its benefits."

For more information about OMG, visit http://www.omg.org/ or the OMG's Finance Domain Task Force homepage at fdtf.omg.org. Questions about membership in OMG may be directed to Ken Berk at [phone] or [e-mail].

About the Object Management Group

OMG is an international, open membership, not-for-profit computer industry consortium. OMG Task Forces develop enterprise integration standards for a wide range of technologies, including: Real-time, Embedded and Specialized Systems, Analysis & Design, Architecture-Driven Modernization and Middleware and an even wider range of industries, including: Business Modeling and Integration, C4I, Finance, Government, Healthcare, Legal Compliance, Life Sciences Research, Manufacturing Technology, Robotics, Software-Based Communications and Space.

OMG's modeling standards, including the Unified Modeling Language[TM] (UML[R]) and Model Driven Architecture[R] (MDA[R]), enable powerful visual design, execution and maintenance of software and other processes, including IT Systems Modeling and Business Process Management. OMG's middleware standards and profiles are based on the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA[R]) and support a wide variety of industries.

More information about OMG can be found at www.omg.org. OMG is headquartered in Needham, MA, USA.

Note to editors: MDA, Model Driven Architecture, OMG Logo, UML, UML logo and CORBA are registered trademarks, and OMG, Object Management Group, MOF, MDA Logos, OMG SysML and Unified Modeling Language are trademarks, of Object Management Group. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

1 From Gartner, Inc. Predicts 2008: Control of the Financial Relationship Is Up for Grabs in Banking and Investment Services. Published: November 28, 2007