International Swaps and Derivatives Association and Tokenovate launch FINOS taskforce to build an open-source Common Domain Model smart contract library

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), together with Tokenovate, has announced the creation of a new taskforce within the Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS) to accelerate the operationalization of the Common Domain Model (CDM) for standardized, interoperable post-trade processing. The taskforce aims to deliver an open-source, production-ready library of CDM functions and workflows that will be freely available to market participants. The initial focus is automating interest rate resets using the 2021 ISDA Interest Rate Derivatives Definitions, a process described as underpinning trillions of dollars of global contracts but still largely manual and inconsistent across firms, with complexity heightened by the shift to risk-free reference rates requiring daily observations, business-day adjustments and compounding calculations. Aligned with concepts set out in ISDA’s Smart Derivatives Contracts: From Concept to Construction whitepaper, the taskforce is developing a smart contract model within the CDM that adds executable logic to the CDM’s canonical representation of terms, conventions and event structures, translating ISDA’s legal and operational standards into code. The initiative is designed to be technology-agnostic and to reduce interpretative differences and reconciliation breaks, enable deterministic and auditable execution, and support interoperability with digital infrastructure, tokenization and artificial-intelligence-driven solutions. FINOS will host the work under its open-source governance framework, and market participants can register interest in the taskforce and subscribe for updates.