FINOS Common Domain Model

The FINOS Common Domain Model is a shared, executable blueprint for how trades are represented and how they change over their life. Instead of each firm recording a lifecycle event its own way and reconciling the differences, the CDM defines the products, trades and events once, with the processing logic embedded.

• Design principles - Normalization through abstraction, bottom-up composability, mapping to existing industry messaging formats, embedded logic for industry processes, and modularization into layers.
• Model as code - The model is written in Rosetta/Rune files and distributed as code in multiple languages; contributions can be made through the Rosetta Design application or the Rune VS Code plugin.
• Trade-association governance - ISDA, ISLA and ICMA plan the yearly roadmap with the working-group chairs and have commissioned REGnosys to provide the CDM Release Management Service; the Steering Working Group approves draft specification releases.
• Parallel release lines - Stable 7.x releases ship alongside 8.0.0-dev pre-releases, with a 6.x line still receiving releases (6.30.0 in October 2026).
• FINOS Graduated - Hosted under FINOS since February 2023 and developed under the Community Specification process, with spec text under the Community Specification License 1.0.

Where it sits. The CDM models the post-trade lifecycle that messaging standards carry: FIX for trading and ISO 20022 for payments and securities messages, which its design principles say it maps to rather than replaces. Alongside FDC3 and CALM it is one of FINOS’s standards, and its machine-executable reporting requirements are aimed at financial regulation.