ISDA and Tokenovate launch taskforce to accelerate operationalisation of CDM
21 October 2025 US
Image: Raja/stock.adobe.com
The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), alongside Tokenovate, has established a new taskforce within the Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS) to accelerate operationalisation of the Common Domain Model (CDM).
The initiative comes in response to growing market demand for standardised, interoperable post-trade processing, and aims to deliver an open-source, production-ready library of CDM functions and workflows, freely available to market participants.
The initial focus of the taskforce will be the automation of interest rate resets, referencing the 2021 ISDA Interest Rate Derivatives Definitions.
According to the association, this process underpins trillions of dollars of financial contracts globally but remains largely manual and inconsistent across institutions, with the shift to risk-free reference rates making this challenge more acute.
These benchmarks, introduced to replace legacy interbank offered rates, require daily rate observations, business-day adjustments, and compounding calculations that need precision and consistency, says ISDA.
Automating this process through the CDM represents 鈥渁 major step鈥� toward real-time, programmable post-trade infrastructure.
Built in alignment with concepts set out in an ISDA whitepaper titled 鈥楽mart Derivatives Contracts: From Concept to Construction鈥�, the taskforce is building a smart contract model within the CDM to translate ISDA鈥檚 legal and operational standards into an executable form.
The CDM already provides a representation of the contract layer, defining standardised product terms, calculation conventions, and event structures.
The smart contract model extends this framework by introducing the 鈥渆xecutable logic鈥� that will power the automation of derivatives products, in line with ISDA鈥檚 foundational legal and operational standards.
Designed not to rely on technology, the initiative delivers immediate operational and strategic benefits by getting rid of interpretative differences and reconciliation breaks, enabling deterministic, auditable execution, and promoting interoperability with digital infrastructure, tokenisation and AI-driven solutions.
Olivier Miart, co-head of digital transformation at ISDA, states: 鈥淚SDA is committed to promoting greater standardisation and efficiency in derivatives markets.
鈥淏y embedding the CDM into executable smart contract logic, we are taking a significant step toward fully digitised, interoperable post-trade processes.
鈥淥ur collaboration with Tokenovate and the FINOS community will help ensure that ISDA鈥檚 legal and operational standards are not just documented, but operationalised 鈥� enabling real-time automation and reducing friction across global derivatives markets.鈥�
Ciar谩n McGonagle, chief legal and product officer at Tokenovate, adds: 鈥淭his collaboration marks the next stage in that evolution: moving from conceptual design to reality.
鈥淓mbedding ISDA鈥檚 legal and operational standards directly into code establishes a common foundation for automation, interoperability and innovation across the market.鈥�
The initiative comes in response to growing market demand for standardised, interoperable post-trade processing, and aims to deliver an open-source, production-ready library of CDM functions and workflows, freely available to market participants.
The initial focus of the taskforce will be the automation of interest rate resets, referencing the 2021 ISDA Interest Rate Derivatives Definitions.
According to the association, this process underpins trillions of dollars of financial contracts globally but remains largely manual and inconsistent across institutions, with the shift to risk-free reference rates making this challenge more acute.
These benchmarks, introduced to replace legacy interbank offered rates, require daily rate observations, business-day adjustments, and compounding calculations that need precision and consistency, says ISDA.
Automating this process through the CDM represents 鈥渁 major step鈥� toward real-time, programmable post-trade infrastructure.
Built in alignment with concepts set out in an ISDA whitepaper titled 鈥楽mart Derivatives Contracts: From Concept to Construction鈥�, the taskforce is building a smart contract model within the CDM to translate ISDA鈥檚 legal and operational standards into an executable form.
The CDM already provides a representation of the contract layer, defining standardised product terms, calculation conventions, and event structures.
The smart contract model extends this framework by introducing the 鈥渆xecutable logic鈥� that will power the automation of derivatives products, in line with ISDA鈥檚 foundational legal and operational standards.
Designed not to rely on technology, the initiative delivers immediate operational and strategic benefits by getting rid of interpretative differences and reconciliation breaks, enabling deterministic, auditable execution, and promoting interoperability with digital infrastructure, tokenisation and AI-driven solutions.
Olivier Miart, co-head of digital transformation at ISDA, states: 鈥淚SDA is committed to promoting greater standardisation and efficiency in derivatives markets.
鈥淏y embedding the CDM into executable smart contract logic, we are taking a significant step toward fully digitised, interoperable post-trade processes.
鈥淥ur collaboration with Tokenovate and the FINOS community will help ensure that ISDA鈥檚 legal and operational standards are not just documented, but operationalised 鈥� enabling real-time automation and reducing friction across global derivatives markets.鈥�
Ciar谩n McGonagle, chief legal and product officer at Tokenovate, adds: 鈥淭his collaboration marks the next stage in that evolution: moving from conceptual design to reality.
鈥淓mbedding ISDA鈥檚 legal and operational standards directly into code establishes a common foundation for automation, interoperability and innovation across the market.鈥�
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