Isda Seeks to Standardize Derivatives Tech with REGnosys Partnership
Isda is hoping that the CDM will bring increased automation and efficiency to the derivatives market, and has tapped a fintech startup, REGnosys, to lead the project.

Need to know
- Isda hopes that the creation of a digital CDM will help to increase automation and efficiency in the derivatives market, which is much needed.
- Additionally, as new technologies increasingly permeate the marketplace, it’s important that the derivatives space doesn’t fall too far behind.
- While this is potentially a big step forward for the industry, the real question is whether or not the various players in the derivatives market, including the regulators, buy into Isda’s vision for what’s best going forward.
In the capital markets, cloud-based tools—with an increasing reliance on public cloud infrastructures—are ubiquitous. At the same time, 2018 promises to be the year of live implementations of platforms built using distributed-ledger technologies—such as blockchain—and of the use of smart contracts. Each new technological advancement presents both new opportunities and significant challenges.
In an attempt to get ahead of the problem—or at least catch up—the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (Isda) is developing a digital version of its Common Domain Model (CDM), which the organization hopes will serve as “the bedrock of standards” upon which new technologies can be rolled out.
To build it, Isda has selected fintech startup REGnosys. Ian Sloyan, director of market infrastructure and technology at Isda, tells WatersTechnology that the vendor—which specializes in the regulatory technology (RegTech) space—beat out about 15 other competitors after ISDA put out a request-for-quotation. He says that two particular aspects of the REGnosys offering stood out—its understanding of the Financial products Markup Language (FpML), and its use of open-source technology.
“We believe REGnosys has exemplary expertise in modeling with standards like FpML, which was very attractive to Isda,” he says. “[And] because their Rosetta workbench is built on open-source tools, it should make it even easier for our members to do their own analysis of the output of work during the engagement. We are quite impressed by the platform that they’ve put together.”
New Blood
REGnosys was founded by two Goldman Sachs alumni—Leo Labeis, REGnosys’ chief executive, and Pierre Lamy, REGnosys’ chief operating officer, who was also previously the chairman of the Isda FpML Standards Committee.
Even though the company is a fintech startup—competing in a space that includes exchanges and clearinghouses, post-trade specialists like IHS Markit, the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation and Nex Group, and software specialists such as Murex, Calypso, FIS and ION Investment Group—the pair’s background in the derivatives space combined with their platform that was built incorporating new engineering practices helped to sway Isda, says Hugh Stewart, an industry analyst familiar with REGnosys.
“They have combined best practices and initiatives in derivatives data engineering combining data and events; this is the more innovative—but not original—development within Isda’s draft abstraction layer that CDM is based on and puts importance on events rather than just data, like FPML, and defines events as being dependent and independent,” Stewart says. “Most attractive in REGnosys is their product Rosetta which was open-sourced from day one that is a data engineering representation of the derivatives world including events, processing and rules and, most important and differentiated, is an automatic generation of programmatic code that use natural language-like interfaces. They describe it operating like a ‘digital map,’ but this also gives them a dynamism which reflects that of the market.”
To begin, REGnosys will focus on the rates and credit asset classes as it produces a framework for a digital representation of the CDM, the first iteration of which they hope will be unveiled after about 12 weeks of testing and validation. In addition to its members, Isda is looking to engage with blockchain and smart contract providers so that they can better understand how the CDM will work in real-world situations, and where improvements will need to be made.
“We have a very agile approach to the development of the Isda CDM. We’re talking to our members on a much more regular basis as to what we want to focus on in these first few weeks,” Sloyan says. “We hope to have our first model of a very basic product built from the data within a couple of weeks and that will serve as the basis from which we move forth. The members involved will see things produced on a weekly basis. We’re trying to do this in more of an agile fashion than Isda or industry projects have been able to work in the past.”
Only users who have a paid subscription or are part of a corporate subscription are able to print or copy content.
To access these options, along with all other subscription benefits, please contact info@waterstechnology.com or view our subscription options here: http://subscriptions.waterstechnology.com/subscribe
You are currently unable to print this content. Please contact info@waterstechnology.com to find out more.
You are currently unable to copy this content. Please contact info@waterstechnology.com to find out more.
Copyright Infopro Digital Limited. All rights reserved.
As outlined in our terms and conditions, https://www.infopro-digital.com/terms-and-conditions/subscriptions/ (point 2.4), printing is limited to a single copy.
If you would like to purchase additional rights please email info@waterstechnology.com
Copyright Infopro Digital Limited. All rights reserved.
You may share this content using our article tools. As outlined in our terms and conditions, https://www.infopro-digital.com/terms-and-conditions/subscriptions/ (clause 2.4), an Authorised User may only make one copy of the materials for their own personal use. You must also comply with the restrictions in clause 2.5.
If you would like to purchase additional rights please email info@waterstechnology.com
More on Emerging Technologies
DeepSeek success spurs banks to consider do-it-yourself AI
Chinese LLM resets price tag for in-house systems—and could also nudge banks towards open-source models.
Standard Chartered goes from spectator to player in digital asset game
The bank’s digital assets custody offering is underpinned by an open API and modular infrastructure, allowing it to potentially add a secondary back-end system provider.
Saugata Saha pilots S&P’s way through data interoperability, AI
Saha, who was named president of S&P Global Market Intelligence last year, details how the company is looking at enterprise data and the success of its early investments in AI.
Data partnerships, outsourced trading, developer wins, Studio Ghibli, and more
The Waters Cooler: CME and Google Cloud reach second base, Visible Alpha settles in at S&P, and another overnight trading venue is approved in this week’s news round-up.
Are we really moving on from GenAI already?
Waters Wrap: Agentic AI is becoming an increasingly hot topic, but Anthony says that shouldn’t come at the expense of generative AI.
Cloud infrastructure’s role in agentic AI
The financial services industry’s AI-driven future will require even greater reliance on cloud. A well-architected framework is key, write IBM’s Gautam Kumar and Raja Basu.
Waters Wavelength Ep. 310: SigTech’s Bin Ren
This week, SigTech’s CEO Bin Ren joins Eliot to discuss GenAI’s progress since ChatGPT’s emergence in 2022, agentic AI, and challenges with regulating AI.
Microsoft exec: ‘Generative AI is completely passé. This is the year of agentic AI’
Microsoft’s Symon Garfield said that AI advancements are prompting financial services firms to change their approach to integrating AI-powered solutions.