openfunds is a non-profit association and an open fund data standard designed to improve the quality, efficiency and consistency of fund data exchange. It provides standardised field definitions, field IDs, values and implementation guidance for the exchange, validation and analysis of investment fund information.

openfunds is organised as a non-profit association. It was founded in 2017 by UBS, Credit Suisse, Julius Bär and FE fundinfo, and today it is supported by a broader community of active particiants from across the fund industry. For more information, visit About Us | openfunds.

openfunds can be used by mapping fund data to standardised openfunds field IDs, definitions, formats and permitted values. This reduces bilateral interpretation work, improves data quality and makes fund data easier to exchange, validate and analyse across asset managers, administrators, data vendors, distributors, platforms and other market participants.

Any organisation that needs to send, receive, validate or analyse fund data can use the openfunds standard. The openfunds standard is open content and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, meaning it can be used free of charge under the applicable licence terms.

openfunds itself does not supply fund data, because it is a data standard and not a data vendor. It does not receive, store or disseminate fund data; fund data is exchanged directly between market participants, many of whom may provide or receive data in openfunds format.

The current field lists with definitions are available on the openfunds website, including Excel and PDF versions and can be accessed here.

openfunds aims to create and maintain a data dictionary or glossary of terms. It defines data concepts and field definitions (including field IDs, permitted values, examples and descriptions) without generally mandating a fixed structure in which these concepts must be used.

There are partial exceptions for specific data subsets, such as Ratios and Exposures or Corporate Actions, where openfunds white papers will suggest a template-like structure. In general, however, the data transmission including file structure should be agreed between the sender and recipient of the data, as the relevant fields, level of granularity and format depend on the specific needs of the parties involved.

openfunds White Papers are publicly available resources that provide additional guidance on specific parts of the standard. They explain the background, rationale and practical implementation of particular field groups or data topics.

Topics include, among others, version management, data tags, flat versus narrow table structures, Corporate Actions, Execution Fields, Dynamic Data, Full Portfolio Holdings, Language Tags and Empty Fields. The white paper section is continuously expanded and updated.

If you notice that a white paper appears to be outdated or no longer fully aligned with the current version of the standard, please inform the openfunds business office at businessoffice@openfunds.org.

A practical implementation usually starts by identifying which fund data your organisation sends, receives or validates, and then mapping those data points to the relevant openfunds field IDs, definitions, formats and permitted values. The Current Version page providing field lists, but also white papers, changelogs and the roadmap should be used as implementation references.

This mapping approach is often sufficient where openfunds is used to support data exchange with external parties. However, if an organisation is considering a broader rebuild or redesign of its fund data database, the openfunds concept can also be used as a reference for the underlying data model. This includes the openfunds hierarchy of an optional umbrella structure, followed by fund level, share class level and – for listed attributes only – listing level. Various linked entities may accompany this structure, such as holdings, ratios and exposures, corporate actions and other data groups.

For implementation questions, organisations can contact openfunds at businessoffice@openfunds.org. Membership may also be useful for organisations that want further guidance and want to participate actively in field development or implementation discussions.

In general, openfunds aims to release new versions no more than twice a year. These releases are normally minor releases, where only the second version number changes, meaning the number after the first dot. For example, a version may change from “2.13.0” to “2.14.0”.

There may also be unscheduled releases, for example when new regulations such as UK CCI or an update to PRIIPS come into force on a specific date. In addition, as openfunds becomes increasingly useful to asset managers and fund distributors around the world, country-specific requirements that need to be reflected in time may also lead to an earlier release of new fields.

Apart from minor releases, openfunds also distinguishes between major releases and bug fixes. The version number changes as follows:

– Major release: from “2.13.0” to “3.00.0”
– Bug fixes or minor additions: from “1.26.1” to “1.26.2”

openfunds understands that new versions require resources, time and patience from users. At the same time, the purpose of the field definitions is to enable fund data to be distributed and exchanged in a high-quality and standardised manner, and to avoid multiple parties developing different solutions for the same issue, which would ultimately make data exchange more complex.

To make upcoming changes and the development of new openfunds fields as transparent and accessible as early as possible, openfunds provides a Next Version page. This page gives detailed information on the current status and development process of the next openfunds field version.

Yes. openfunds fields can be added, amended, marked as no longer supported or, in a later major release, removed completely. The Current Version page includes a dedicated section for deprecated fields, and the field lists contain versioning information showing, for example, when fields were introduced and until when they are valid. Removed fields are available at the very end of the Previous Versions page.

However, openfunds generally pays close attention to ensuring that changes to a field do not invalidate data that has already been exchanged between market participants. For example, where a field is a string with a fixed list of permitted values, openfunds may add a new value to the existing list. If, however, a value needs to be changed or removed, openfunds will usually create a separate field with a new openfunds ID and retires the old field.

Deprecated fields should therefore be reviewed carefully during implementation and version upgrades.