Canadian Regulator to Adopt FIX 5.0

FIX Protocol (FPL) has developed an Extension Pack to enable FIX 5.0 to support the Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada’s (IIROC’s) new FIX-based market regulation feed specification for market surveillance and transaction reporting.

FPL stated that it believes the IIROC’s decision to adopt this latest version of the FIX Protocol will further encourage growing usage of FIX throughout Canada. It’s also a prime example of the increasing interest from regulators and trading venues in adopting standardized practices globally, according to FPL, the non-profit organization

FPL and IIROC worked together on conducting an in-depth gap analysis, which indicated that the transition to this latest version of FIX would require only a small number of enhancements published as an Extension Pack. The Extension Pack will be available immediately, requiring no new messages or tags, resulting in ease and speed of implementation, according to the release.

“Having worked closely with IIROC to develop the gap analysis I look forward now to witnessing increased adoption of the protocol in Canada,” commented Ryan Pierce, FPL Technical Director in the release. “FIX is an open messaging protocol and from a regulator’s perspective it offers significant benefits to the user community, proving to be a cost effective solution that provides the flexibility required to adapt quickly and effectively support changing market needs,” stated Pierce in the release.

Over the past six months FPL personnel have worked closely with exchanges and regulators globally to build a stronger understanding of the benefits the FIX Protocol offers and worked in a collaborative manner to evolve the FIX specification to meet their requirements. The agreement with IIROC is an outcome of that approach, noted FPL in the release.

IIROC is the national self-regulatory organization, which oversees all investment dealers and trading activity on debt and equity marketplace in Canada. IIROC was created in 2008 through the consolidation of the Investment Dealers Association of Canada and Market Regulation Services, Inc.

Ivy is Editor-at-Large for Advanced Trading and Wall Street & Technology. Ivy is responsible for writing in-depth feature articles, daily blogs and news articles with a focus on automated trading in the capital markets. As an industry expert, Ivy has reported on a myriad ... View Full Bio