ICMA Bond Data Taxonomy

Industry Initiatives

Overview

Initiative Name	Bond Data Taxonomy
Organization	ICMA (International Capital Market Association)
Type	Standard
Description	The ICMA Bond Data Taxonomy aims to standardize bond issuance data in a machine-readable format, starting with key economic and legal terms from a bond term sheet. The goal is to promote automation and interoperability across debt capital markets.
Ecosystem	Agnostic
Public Participants	Agora DCM, Allen & Overy, Arteria AI, AXA IM, Baker & McKenzie, Banco Santander, BNY Mellon, Banque Internationale à Luxembourg, Barclays, BlackRock, Bloomberg, BNP Paribas, Bond Auction, Citi, Clifford Chance, Covalent Capital, D2 Legal Technology, DBS Bank, Dealogic, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Börse / ClearStream, DirectBooks, DTCC, Euroclear, European Investment Bank (EIB), European Stability Mechanism (ESM), First Abu Dhabi Bank (PJSC), Goldman Sachs, Hong Kong Exchange, HSBC, ING Bank, IHS Markit (S&P Global), Inveztor, KfW, King & Wood Mallesons, Linklaters, LSEG Flow, Luxembourg Stock Exchange, MTS Markets, Nasdaq, NatWest Markets, Norton Rose Fulbright, NowCM, Origin Markets, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, RBC, Refinitiv, Singapore Exchange (SGX), Simmons & Simmons LLP, SIX Digital Exchange, SIX Swiss Exchange, Société Générale, SG Forge, Standard Chartered Bank, UBS, Union Investment, World Bank.
Data Started	-
Status	Published
Link	ICMA's Bond Data Taxonomy tutorial https://www.icmagroup.org/market-practice-and-regulatory-policy/fintech-and-digitalisation/fintech-advisory-committee-and-related-groups/bond-data-taxonomy/

The ICMA Bond Data Taxonomy (ICMA BDT) was initiated by the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) to promote standardization and interoperability in bond issuance data. The BDT provides a common language and data model to represent key information found in bond term sheets and final terms in a machine-readable format. It covers over 90 familiar data fields typically seen in vanilla bond issuance, including identifiers, amounts, currencies, dates, parties, restrictions and more.

The BDT is comprised of XML schema definition files, enumerations, ISO data types. By leveraging XML and compatible ISO standards, it aims to reduce fragmentation and manual processes across the bond issuance workflow. The BDT can be integrated independently from specific technologies used.

As it continues to evolve, the ICMA BDT could become an authoritative standard for enabling automation and straight-through processing in bond issuance, settlement, and distribution. It has the potential to significantly improve efficiency and reduce risks. Organizations involved in bond markets should consider engaging with the ICMA BDT standard efforts. Adoption of its data model could help gain industry-wide interoperability.

Analysis

Scope and Purpose
Target Audience	Primary market participants including issuers, banks, investors, trading platforms, and service providers involved in bond issuance.
Coverage	Focuses on vanilla bond issuance data like amounts, currencies, dates, parties, restrictions etc. Scope can expand over time.
Technical Aspects
Architecture	Uses XML schema definition (XSD) to represent data. Structured around Party, PartyRole, Issuance and Product data types. Leverages ISO data types.
Interoperability	XML format allows integration across systems. Could support other formats in future.
Security Measures	No specific measures mentioned.
Adoption and Implementation
Vendor-agnostic Reference Implementation	Example bond XML files, and an Excel reference sheet for usability provided.
Current Adopters/Vendors Implementations	?
Case Studies	None
Ease of Implementation	XML schema provides clear structure to map/ingest bond data. But production integration work needed.
Governance and Update Mechanism
Oversight Body	ICMA Bond Data Taxonomy Working Group
Update Mechanism	No defined cadence mentioned but ICMA plans periodic reviews to expand scope.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Advantages	Standard taxonomy promotes automation and interoperability for bond issuance. Extensible XML schema.
Challenges	Scope currently limited to vanilla bonds. Production implementation and adoption remains to be tested.
Compatibility and Integration
Inter-standard Compatibility	ISO 17442 Legal Entity Identifier (LEI): The global LEI system uniquely identifies parties to financial transactions. The BDT uses LEIIdentifier type for party identification. ISO 8601 Dates and times: The BDT uses ISODate type for date fields such as issue date, first settlement date etc. ISO 4217 Currencies: The BDT uses ISOCurrency type for currency fields like specified currency. ISO 6166 ISIN: The BDT uses ISINIdentifier type for International Securities Identification Number fields. ISO 10383 MIC: The BDT uses MICIdentifier type for Market Identifier Codes used in exchange codes. ISO 9362 BIC: The BDT uses BICIdentifier type for Bank Identifier Codes of parties. ISO 20022: The BDT references ISO 20022 defined types in some places like Max140Text.
Extensibility	XML schema is extensible to accommodate more use cases over time.
Community and Support
Community Engagement	Open to all market participants but led by ICMA members currently.
Support Channels	ICMA website seems the main channel for support and updates.
Future Roadmap
Next Step	None
Long-term Vision	Become a widely adopted open standard for bond issuance data.
Comparative Analysis
Comparative Analysis	Comparable standards are FIX, FPML, and ISIN. BDT scope is currently more limited but focused on interoperability for issuance.

Reviewer

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Proposed reviewer:

Review status: Not started.