NEW YORK--()--INNODATA ISOGEN, INC. (NASDAQ: INOD) today announced that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has selected Michael Will, President and Chief Product Officer of Innodata’s docGenix division, as a member of its new Technology Advisory Subcommittee on Data Standardization.
“Data is the foundation of our market oversight activities and it is essential for the Commission and the market to agree on well-accepted standards for describing complex financial products.”
The CFTC has stated that the purpose of the Subcommittee is "to develop recommendations regarding a standardized reference data depository representing the universe of legal and financial terms utilized in describing, defining, and valuing the various derivatives and other financial instruments which are presently and in the future may be traded on and off of regulated exchanges. The creation of standardized reference points and data terms is anticipated to aid in the development and use of universal entity, product, and/or instrument identifiers and provide greater consistency in the collection, reporting, and management of individual transactions, underlying legal documents (including master agreements and credit support agreements), and risk exposures." (Federal Register notice dated May 2, 2011, seeking nominations to the Subcommittee)1.
Of 52 nominations received by the CFTC in response to the Federal Register notice, the CFTC announced on June 23 that it selected 19 members from companies including (in addition to Innodata’s docGenix) Barclays Capital, Blackrock, Bloomberg, Citigroup, CME Group (the derivatives exchange), Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Goldman Sachs, Google, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), MarkitSERV, Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) and Thomson Reuters, as well as federal agency observers from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Treasury/Office of Financial Research (OFR), and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
In its June 23 announcement2,Commissioner Scott O’Malia, the chairman of the CFTC’s Technology Advisory Committee, stated that he “was pleased by the large number of extremely well-qualified nominees for participation in the work of this important subcommittee.” With regard to the Subcommittee’s charter, Commissioner O’Malia also stated, “Data is the foundation of our market oversight activities and it is essential for the Commission and the market to agree on well-accepted standards for describing complex financial products.”
The Subcommittee will be chaired by the CFTC Chief Economist Andrei Kirilenko and will conduct at least three sessions. The sessions are planned for the summer, fall and winter of 2011 and will be open to the public. The Subcommittee will consist of the following four working groups: product and entity identification; semantic representation of financial instruments; machine-readable legal documents, and storage and retrieval of financial data. The Subcommittee will present a report with its recommendations to the Technology Advisory Committee, which will consider the report and make recommendations to the CFTC as to what further actions warrant consideration.
“I am pleased to have been selected by the CFTC for the Subcommittee on Data Standardization,” stated Michael Will, President and Chief Product Officer of Innodata’s docGenix division. My ongoing exchange of ideas with representatives of the CFTC, SEC and OFR have underscored for me the timeliness of our investment in launching Innodata’s docGenix division and building the docGenix XML data model, a computer-readable algorithmic description of the legal agreements that govern derivatives trades. I am looking forward to sharing our work with my fellow committee members and the industry at large.”
The docGenix XML data model was developed over the past several years and represents over 27,000 man-hours of development by finance lawyers and XML architects. It contains a standardized yet flexible reference model of the universe of legal and financial terms utilized in Master Agreements, Credit Support Agreements and other financial agreements and is capable of being transformed into a variety of different data formats that can interface with in-house applications (such as collateral and risk management systems) as well as third party systems (such as swap data repositories) and docGenix’s own product suite.
In an interview reported by the Financial Times on June 26, Commissioner O’Malia told the Financial Times, “We are looking for fresh ideas, people who have experience sorting and managing data.”
About Innodata’s docGenix Division
docGenix is a services division of Innodata Isogen (NASDAQ: INOD).
docGenix provides web-based applications that enable financial services firms to generate, negotiate, monitor and analyze the negotiated provisions of Master Agreements and Credit Support Agreements published by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. (“ISDA”), as well as financial and legal documentation relating to repos, securities lending, prime brokerage, investment management and clearing. Using the docGenix product suite, firms can proactively manage risks embedded in these documents - such as ratings downgrade and Net Asset Value triggers - by performing deep portfolio analysis and stress tests. The docGenix applications also provide Web Services data feeds designed to interface with in-house applications (such as collateral and risk management systems) as well as third party systems (such as Swap Data Repositories).
The docGenix applications and data feeds are enabled by an XML data model that represents derivatives and other financial/legal documents as computer-readable algorithms. This XML data model was developed over the past several years and represents over 27,000 man-hours of development by finance lawyers and XML architects. It contains a standardized yet flexible reference model of the universe of legal and financial terms utilized in Master Agreements, Credit Support Agreements and other financial agreements.
docGenix provides managed services, including digitization and analysis, to enable its clients to transform legal contracts through its XML Data Model efficiently and quickly, as well as consulting and technology services to integrate its Web Services data feeds with in-house risk management systems and to customize in-house systems.
For more information, visit www.docgenix.com.
About Innodata Isogen
Innodata Isogen (NASDAQ: INOD) is a leading provider of publishing, digital content and related information technology (IT) services.
We work as a product development partner to our clients, helping them meet their content creation and publishing challenges. We provide services that draw upon global resources, proven project management and highly engineered processes and tools. We also help our clients improve their internal business operations with process and systems engineering. Our clients include leading enterprises in information-intensive industries such as media, publishing and information services, high technology, manufacturing, aerospace, defense, law, government and intelligence.
Recent honors include Global Services Media’s Global Services 100, EContent Magazine’s EContent 100, KMWorld Magazine’s 100 Companies That Matter in Knowledge Management, the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals’ (IAOP) Global Outsourcing Top 100, D&B India’s Leading ITeS and BPO Companies and the Black Book of Outsourcing’s Top List of Leading Outsourcing Providers to the Printing and Publishing Business.
Headquartered in the New York metro area, Innodata Isogen has offices and operations in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Israel, India, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines.
For more information, visit www.innodata-isogen.com.
About the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
Congress created the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in 1974 as an independent agency with the mandate to regulate commodity futures and option markets in the United States. The agency's mandate has been renewed and expanded several times since then, most recently by the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000.
The CFTC assures the economic utility of the futures markets by encouraging their competitiveness and efficiency, protecting market participants against fraud, manipulation, and abusive trading practices, and by ensuring the financial integrity of the clearing process. Through effective oversight, the CFTC enables the futures markets to serve the important function of providing a means for price discovery and offsetting price risk.
For more information, visit www.cftc.gov.
This release contains forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words “project,” “head start,” "believe," "expect," “should,” "anticipate," "indicate," "point to," “forecast,” “likely” and other similar expressions generally identify forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.
These forward-looking statements are based largely on our current expectations, and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, the primarily at-will nature of the company's contracts with its customers and the ability of customers to reduce, delay or cancel projects, including projects that the company regards as recurring; continuing revenue concentration in a limited number of clients; continuing reliance on project-based work; inability to replace projects that are completed, cancelled or reduced; depressed market conditions; changes in external market factors; the ability and willingness of our customers and prospective customers to execute business plans which give rise to requirements for digital content and professional services in knowledge processing; difficulty in integrating and deriving synergies from acquisitions; potential undiscovered liabilities of companies that we acquire; changes in our business or growth strategy; the emergence of new or growing competitors; various other competitive and technological factors; and other risks and uncertainties indicated from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Actual results could differ materially from the results referred to in the forward-looking statements. In light of these risks and uncertainties, there can be no assurance that the results referred to in the forward-looking statements contained in this release will occur.
1 http://www.cftc.gov/ucm/groups/public/@lrfederalregister/documents/file/2011-10556a.pdf
2 http://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/pr6056-11.html
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