Symbolic representation of securities trade settlement messages applying the principles of formal languages for business communication

The increased use of network communications within industries, and among firms, suppliers, and customers, is focusing greater attention on the methods and standards for interorganizational communications. In the securities industry, the settlement and clearing of trades depends on numerous messages to be sent and received by several organizations. Using the principles of formal languages for business communication (FLBC), we develop a message representation that is flexible and self-describing, and show how defeasible reasoning applied to settlement messages could handle problem trades. This application of FLBC offers advantages through machine-to-machine error reconcilement, integration with other market communications systems, and robustness to changes in securities design and regulation.<>