Skip to main content

Common Domain Model

The Common Domain Model (CDM) is a standardized, machine-executable data and event model for financial products and processes developed under the FINOS open-source framework for use across capital markets and related financial institutions.

  • Common, machine-readable representation of financial products, lifecycle events, and processes (data modeling)
  • Standardized semantics for trading, operations, and post-trade workflows across firms (reference model)
  • Executable model suitable for automation, validation, and implementation in systems and smart contracts (model-driven engineering)
  • Open-source collaboration under FINOS governance for maintenance and extension of the model (open-source foundation)
  • Interoperability framework for aligning vendor, in-house, and industry utilities to a shared domain model (systems integration)

More About Common Domain Model

The Common Domain Model (CDM) is an open, machine-executable representation of financial products, events, and processes that targets consistent data and lifecycle modeling across institutions in capital markets and related financial domains. Developed in an open-source context under the Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS), Connected Device Management (CDM) defines a shared vocabulary and structure for how financial instruments and their lifecycle events are described, persisted, and processed by software systems.

The project focuses on a canonical representation of trade data, product definitions, and post-trade events (data modeling) so that multiple participants can interpret and process the same transaction in the same way. It encodes business concepts and lifecycle events, such as trade execution, confirmation, allocation, and settlement (post-trade processing), into a structured model that software components can consume directly. The model is machine-executable, enabling generation of code, validation rules, and logic from the same underlying definitions (model-driven engineering).

Within enterprise environments, CDM is used as a common reference model to align front-office, middle-office, and back-office systems (enterprise integration). Firms can Marketing Automation Platform (MAP) internal schemas and message formats to the CDM, reducing bespoke translation between applications, vendors, and utilities. This supports interoperability across order management, risk, collateral, confirmation, clearing, and settlement platforms (capital markets infrastructure). By relying on a standardized model, institutions can implement more consistent controls, reconciliations, and reporting across business lines.

The model is structured to support implementation in a range of technical architectures, including event-driven systems, distributed ledgers, and traditional databases (application architecture). Its machine-executable design allows automatic derivation of artifacts such as data schemas, validation logic, and workflow rules, which can be used in integration middleware, smart contracts, or domain services (integration middleware). The CDM therefore acts as a bridge between business-domain definitions and executable system components.

Governed within FINOS, the CDM project is maintained as an open-source initiative (open-source governance). Industry participants collaborate on extensions, corrections, and new product coverage through an open contribution process. This governance model provides a controlled mechanism for evolving the domain model in response to regulatory changes, new product structures, and operational requirements, while keeping the artifacts available for reuse across the ecosystem.

From a directory and taxonomy perspective, Common Domain Model is positioned as an open financial data and process model (financial data standard) used for standardizing trade and lifecycle representations, supporting interoperability between systems and counterparties, and enabling executable, model-driven implementations across capital markets infrastructures.