Hi, FpML versions are not discontinued, as such. FpML has a current version (5-8 at the time of writing, soon to transition to 5-9) – but this simply represents the latest state of development of the standard. Implementers can (and do) remain using older versions while these continue to meet their functional requirements. Indeed, some industry utilities offer the ability to interact with their services at multiple FpML versions, depending on the user’s preference.
In your case the decision on when to upgrade to 5-8 (or 5-9) will likely be driven by your functional requirements, and the requirements of any clients/consumers of FpML with whom you interact. If you don’t need functionality offered in a later version of FpML, or if this is not supported by the consumers of FpML which you publish, then there is no immediate need to upgrade.
Ideally it should be possible to accept upgrades within a FpML major version series without undue impact. If message consumers adopt appropriate safeguards with respect to forward compatibility, then you should be able to avoid the need to upgrade all parts of your system architecture in lock-step. It may be preferable to build relatively frequent minor upgrades into your process, than to perform a rare but disruptive “big bang” upgrade when forced by new functional requirements.
Best regards,
Harry
