10 April 2003 -- Tokyo

Today at the ISDA Annual General Meeting, Gem Soup LLC announced the availability of the first community tools for working with FpML.

The GemScribe^TM FpML viewer/editor is currently in beta testing, and is expected to be in full release by summer. This tool allows a user with Internet Explorer to load, display, edit, and save FpML trades both locally and via the World Wide Web. Separately, ISDA has announced that Gem Soup's technology will underlie its FpML viewer/editor for Interest Rate Swaps and Options and FX products; this tool will be distributed free to ISDA members. A demonstration version of GemScribe is available at http://gemsoup.com. The GemScribe editor includes a variety of convenient features, including: drop down selectors and radio buttons for lists and choices, keyboard shortcuts for number and date entry, and an outlining mode for quickly navigating through complex documents. It also provides easy customization, allowing support for new products or new XML formats to be developed very quickly using product templates. Support for additional FpML asset classes, such as Credit Derivatives, is planned in the near future.

The GemDelta^TM FpML document comparison tool has also been released for beta testing. A version integrated with the GemScribe viewer can also be viewed at http://gemsoup.com. Its features include: differences between the documents are both highlighted on the deal viewer and summarized in a tabular report; an overall match quality score is displayed; the match scoring is configurable, allowing specified deal components to be omitted from the comparison or marked as optional, and also allowing non-FpML tags to be matched. An upgrade to GemScribe to provide GemDelta functionality is available at an introductory price of US$199. Standalone and server-based versions of GemDelta are also available to Gem Soup community members.

Brian Lynn, Founder and CTO of Gem Soup LLC, commented "We're very pleased to be releasing these powerful, low-cost tools for the derivatives community. We feel that these tools, combined with the precision and richness of the FpML standard, will go a long way to helping firms clean up the multi-billion dollar mess in privately-negotiated derivatives processing." He added, "We're looking forward to working with members of the derivatives community to create new business processes to take advantage of the new power of technology to improve communications between and within firms. Now firms don't need to spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars and sign long-term contracts to get computerized OTC derivative trade matching."

Financial Products Markup Language is the official protocol of ISDA (the International Swaps and Derivatives Association) for describing privately negotiated financial derivative transactions.

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