The National Office has recently signed an agreement with LIXI Ltd (Lending Industry XML Initiative) to collaboratively develop national electronic data standards. Under the agreement each jurisdiction will become a member of LIXI in its own right and will work together on these standards.

A NEC Data Standard (NECDS) for all electronic communications between the NECS and stakeholders is a key feature of the National Business Model. The standard will provide a common format for data transfers and will ensure systems can talk to each other reliably without any system needing to know how any other system handles the data. It will also ensure that any changes to one system do not require matching changes to any other system.

The National Office has sought the involvement of LIXI because of its innovative approach and considerable involvement in the lending industry. LIXI Ltd is a not for profit independent industry organisation established to develop e-commerce standards and remove barriers to electronic data exchange within the Australian lending industry. Its membership consists of 80% of Australia’s mortgage lenders including all the major banks.

A unique aspect of the NECS agreement with LIXI is positioning of a management group between the LIXI Board and the working group. The NECS Data Standards Management Group consists of 10 members, 2 from LIXI, one from NECO and 7 appointed by the National Office on the advice of the jurisdictions. This group had its first meeting on 6 June 2007 in Sydney and all jurisdictions were present personally or by teleconference.

At the first meeting the Management Group agreed on its rules of order, its functions, including deciding on the development priority of the chosen transactions, decided on the task and timing for the first working group and agreed on overall design principles.

The Management Group agreed its first task would be to develop standards for discharges, transfers and mortgages to enable lodgment and registration. This task has commenced with the first meeting of the NEC DS Working Group on 16 & 17 August, 2007.

The Working Group currently consists of LIXI members, NECO, NSW, NT, Tasmania, SA and WA. The Working Group decided to commence work on the NECS to nand registry transactions. The overall goal of defining these transactions is to provide a clear and well-defined interface between NECS and the various land registries that will enable the land registries to start planning at a detailed level for the range of electronic interactions that NECS will require. Work on this process is well under way. The next task of the Working Group is to consider the client to NECS side of transactions and this will commence shortly.