TWIST (Treasury Workstation Integration Standards Team) "is a working group of several companies formed and led by the treasury operations department of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group that is focused on creating standards to facilitate an open dealing marketplace for foreign exchange (FX)." The group recently issued a revised XML DTD and set of data models for this open standard interface. This second version "includes detailed instructions for foreign exchange trading, including trade and settlement confirmation. It further includes the following trade events: (1) New trades (2) Collection of trades (3) Amendments (4) Cancellations (5) Close outs (6) Allocations (7) Forward rolls (8) Aggregation (9) Split settlements. The new version has also been aligned with the work done by FpML and is again being considered for incorporation by the FpML FX Products Working Group." TWIST is seeking to deliver additional specifications by the end of 2001, covering (1) Compliance and controls [Credit controls, Dealer authorisations, Tradable instruments]; (2) User Authentication; (3) Trade / Settlement confirmation; (4) Workflow processing Payments; (5) Workflow processing Advises to Receipt; (6) Accounting and audit reporting. "TWIST is working on further alignment with SWIFT and a range of banks that play a dominant role in providing settlement services with regard to the confirmation and settlement processes." The TWIST web site provides open access to the data models, and documentation comparing the TWIST standard to the current FpML-FX specification.

Companies involved with TWIST: Royal Dutch/Shell Group's treasury operations department, alterna Technologies Group, Inc., Barclays Capital, Currenex, Inc., Integrity Treasury Solutions, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Reuters, Richmond Software, SAP, Selkirk Financial Technologies, SimCorp, tapX, Trema, Wall Street Systems, and XRT.