Press Releases
IFX FORUM LAUNCHES NEW SOA WORKING GROUP
WAKEFIELD, Mass., USA – May 6, 2013 – The Interactive Financial eXchange (IFX; http://www.ifxforum.org) Forum today announced the official formation of a Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) Working Group, following approval of its charter by the IFX Forum Steering Committee. The focus of the new group will be to provide guidance on implementing IFX in a Service Oriented Architecture environment.
The IFX Forum is an international non-profit industry association whose mission is to develop and promote the adoption of its open, interoperable standard for financial data exchange. The IFX Business Message Specification (BMS) is accessible at no charge at http://bms.ifxforum.org/.
At the SOA WG's formative meeting, Co-Chairs Kyle Cacciatore and Arlene Griese, both of FIS™, were selected. Some of the other IFX Forum members participating are ACI Worldwide, Inc.; Bankers Association of the Republic of China (BAROC); CSC; NCR; U.S. Bank; and Wells Fargo. All Forum members are invited to send representatives to the group, which has already begun work on deliverables.
The SOA WG will be the venue for all IFX Forum discussions and work efforts related to identifying and describing best practices for implementing IFX in a Service Oriented Architecture context, and documenting common IFX SOA implementation patterns.
"Since the advent of IFX Version 2, we've had an increasing number of requests to provide direct guidance to members and other implementers about how to best use IFX in SOA environments. Publishing an SOA Implementation Guide will address this need and expand IFX adoptions," said IFX Forum President Richard P. Urban. "I'm pleased to see that the new group got off to a very energetic start, and enthusiasm is high. Members are sharing success stories and lessons learned, which will result in improvements in IFX as well as a deeper bench of knowledgeable members capable of actively participating in the Architecture Committee."
The SOA WG is now outlining a Web Services Implementation Guide for IFX v2.x that will describe the key concepts of the IFX Service Provider and Services objects and provide a "cookbook" step-by-step example of building a meaningful service. Later, the SOA WG may create other material, including white papers on topics such as how to use the BIAN Service Framework with IFX, updates to the existing IFX XML Implementation Guide and the IFX Version 1 Web Services Implementation Guide, and proposals for changes to the IFX BMS.
The IFX Forum's membership includes organizations from a dozen countries on four continents. In addition to developing IFX, the Forum actively engages in international standards activity, including longtime liaison efforts with ISO and contributions to ISO 20022, a leadership role in the Remittance Coalition set up by the U.S. Federal Reserve, and Memoranda of Understanding with ASC X9 and EPASOrg. The Forum welcomes additional members to join in all its activities. More information can be found at http://www.ifxforum.org/join/.
About the IFX Forum
Founded in 1997, the Interactive Financial eXchange (IFX) Forum is an international not-for-profit industry association whose mission is to develop and promote the adoption of its open, interoperable standard for financial data exchange, suitable for use by all sectors of the financial services industry. Forum membership is open to organizations interested in contributing to the development of open financial standards. Forum members include financial institutions, hardware, software and service firms, and related non-profit groups.
The IFX Forum is currently organized into the following Working Groups: ATM/POS; Branch Banking Services; Business Banking; Card Management & Servicing; Liaison & Interoperability; Loans; and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). IFX Forum Working Groups, in concert with an Architecture Committee to coordinate their efforts, develop open Internet-compatible messages for all sectors of the financial services industry. To learn more about the IFX standard or the benefits of IFX Forum membership, please visit www.IFXForum.org.