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The Semantics Repository is a project of the EDM Council. The purpose of the repository is to standardize the terms and definitions of all the reference and market data attributes used by the financial industry for business processing, investment decisions, scenario modeling, risk management, portfolio valuation and reporting.
The EDM Council operates from the perspective that precision of business semantics used by the financial industry are the foundation of effective data management. As such, all these terms need to be precisely tagged to avoid the problem of common terms that have different meaning, common meanings that use different terms and vague definitions that don�t capture critical nuances.
There are thousands of data attributes, delivered by hundreds of internal and external sources and stored in dozens of unconnected databases. Without precision of term names and definitions, financial institutions will have a difficult time comparing data and will find it hard to set precedence rules at the attribute level. Without commonly accepted semantics they will experience challenges in automating business processes for better STP and will have difficulties in exchanging data and communications instructions with counterparties. Without precise data meaning, firms will find it hard to feed analytical models and calculation engines with confidence, hard to create consistent benchmarks for meeting the terms of investment agreements and hard to do cross-asset risk analysis.
In short, inconsistent business semantics contribute to the lack of confidence in data resources and increase the cost of doing business. Unambiguous nomenclature and precise attribute definitions are absolutely critical to the way financial institutions operate.
In recent months most of our work has been taking place within the OMG working groups, where for example we have added a considerable amount of formal annotation material for consumption by semantic web applications. We have also significantly revised the modular structure of those ontologies which are being submitted as FIBO specifications, in order to make operatonal deployment of semantic trechnology applications easier. This structure is not reflected in the current website, which aims to provide a more business-centric view of the subject matter. For this reason, as we upload fresh material to this site, please bear in mind that it is only a partial view of the subject matter and does not reflect the modular structure of the material.
Coming soon: a more detailed set of sections in the Business Entities section, showing each of the separate sections of the model with selected diagrams of the content of each section.
The goal of the EDM Councils Semantics Repository is to standardize the terms and definitions of all reference data attributes stored in the master files of financial institutions and passed among supply chain partners. Precise nomenclature translates into a common language between systems and sources, reduces the cost of doing business, and promotes confidence in data among business users. It is at the foundation of effective data management and an essential building block for business process automation.
A by-product of the way in which we have approached this task, is that parts of the Semantic Repository content may be expressed in RDF/OWL as discrete "Operational Ontologies". These operational ontologies may be used in semantic technology applications, for example to automatically classify some set of derivatives according to their properties, or to query over multiple types of information (contracts plus legal entities for example) using semantic queries.
Review meetings were held weekly over some four years (2008 - 2011)to work our way through the terms/definitions within the repository, field questions and make adjustments to our conceptual model. This was our mechanism for ensuring that the content of the models reflects a financial industry business view of the world and is not limited to the knowledge of any one modeler or group of modelers. A separate set of calls took place on alternate Thursdays for Loans during 2010 / 11.
Since March 2011 the EDM Council has been working in conjunction with the Object Management Group to package sections of this Semantics Repository material and submit it as proposed formal standards specifications under the FIBO umbrella.
The work is very technical in nature. All are welcome to participate. The work is divided into two broad areas:
For how details of current and future sessions, and detailed notes of the sessions to date please refer to the FDTF working wiki. All are welcome to participate.
The notes below show the detailed workings of the business subject matter expert review sessions for each part of the FIBO business content.
most recent first
Earlier review session notes are now available in zipped up archive form. Individual notes may also be found in the instruments sections in the model structure.
Original (first pass) Static Reference data terms review sessions, all Tradable Securities. Also Business and Legal Entites.