A Uniform Resource Name (URN) Namespace for SWIFT Financial Messaging

Network Working Group                                          J. Gustin
Request for Comments: 3615                                     A. Goyens
Category: Informational                                            SWIFT
                                                          September 2003


                A Uniform Resource Name (URN) Namespace
                     for SWIFT Financial Messaging

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
   memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   This document describes a Uniform Resource Name (URN) namespace that
   is managed by SWIFT for usage within messages standardized by SWIFT.

1.  Introduction

   SWIFT is an industry-owned cooperative supplying secure, standardised
   messaging services and interface software to over 7,500 financial
   institutions in 199 countries.  The SWIFT community includes banks,
   broker/dealers and investment managers, as well as their market
   infrastructures in payments, securities, treasury and trade.

   The goal of this namespace is to ensure the stability and uniqueness
   of the names of various items that are used within the messages
   exchanged between financial institutions.  SWIFT is one of the
   principal standardization bodies for financial messages and services.
   This standardization process identifies the structure and meaning of
   messages exchanged for various financial services offered by
   financial institutions.  It is essential that names of items (such as
   the XML schema describing the message itself) can be used to identify
   the resource even years after the message has been exchanged.

   The same resource may exist in multiple physical locations, and thus
   multiple URL's, but only a single URN.

2.  Specification Template

   Namespace ID:

      "swift"

   Registration Information:

      Version 1
      Date: 2001-08-01

   Declared registrant of the namespace:

          SWIFT s.c.r.l.
          Avenue Adele 1
          B-1310 La Hulpe
          Belgium

   Declaration of syntactic structures:

      The structure of the Namespace Specific String is a flat space
      <URN chars> [1] which have no knowable structure outside of the
      context of the SWIFT community internal resolver.  Future changes
      to the assignment methods may allow others to assign sub-spaces of
      the flat namespace but again, this knowledge is only valid
      internally and should never be inferred or relied upon externally.

   Relevant ancillary Documentation:

      None

   Identifier uniqueness considerations:

      Identifiers are assigned by SWIFT URN Registration that guarantees
      uniqueness.  This is simply achieved by keeping track of already
      assigned names and comparing all new proposed names to the
      database ones.  If the name already exists a new one has to be
      proposed.

   Identifiers persistence considerations:

      The assignment process guarantees that names are not reassigned.
      In any case SWIFT URNs are guaranteed to remain valid for 15
      years.

   Process of identifiers assignment:

      Names are granted via SWIFT proprietary registration procedures.

   Process for identifier resolution:

      SWIFT URNs are resolved via URN resolvers run under SWIFT
      responsibility.

   Rules for lexical equivalence:

      No special consideration.

   Conformance with URN syntax:

      No special consideration.

   Validation mechanism:

      None specified.

   Scope:

      This namespace is reserved to the global financial community.

3.  Examples

   The following examples are not guaranteed to be real.  They are
   listed for pedagogical reasons only.

      urn:swift:xsd:epp$mi.i-2.0
      urn:swift:type:fin$103

4.  Security Considerations

   Since the URNs in this namespace are opaque there are no additional
   security considerations other than those normally associated with the
   use and resolution of URNs in general.

   It is noted however that attempting to resolve a SWIFT URN through a
   resolver other than the one provided by SWIFT is error prone.  In any
   case, it is not considered authoritative.

5.  IANA Considerations

   The IANA has registered formal URN namespace 15, to SWIFT within the
   IANA registry of URN NIDs.

6.  Normative References

   [1]  Moats, R., "URN Syntax", RFC 2141, May 1997.

   [2]  Daigle, L., van Gulik, D., Iannella, R. and P. Faltstrom,
        "Uniform Resource Name (URN) Namespace Definition Mechanisms",
        BCP 66, RFC 3406, October 2002.

7.  Authors' Addresses

   Jean-Marc Gustin
   SWIFT s.c.r.l.
   Avenue Adele, 1
   B1310 La Hulpe
   Belgium

   EMail: jean-marc.gustin@swift.com


   Andre Goyens
   SWIFT s.c.r.l.
   Avenue Adele, 1
   B1310 La Hulpe
   Belgium

   EMail: andre.goyens@swift.com
   URI:   http://www.swift.com

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