RFC 7207

RFC 7207: A Uniform Resource Name (URN) Namespace for Eurosystem Messaging 💖

okay bestie, this is RFC 7207 🎀. It was written by M. Ortseifen and G. Dickfeld, both from Deutsche Bundesbank, and it was published in April 2014 as part of the IETF stream. Its category is Informational 📚, so it's published for info purposes and is not an Internet Standards Track spec. The ISSN is 2070-1721. The header doesn't list anything it obsoletes or updates, so there's no drama there 🙈.

Abstract ✨

So this doc defines and registers with IANA a Uniform Resource Name (URN) namespace for use inside messages standardized by the Eurosystem 💅. The namespace is managed by Deutsche Bundesbank, which is a member of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB).

Status of This Memo 🧾

This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification, so it's published for informational purposes only 📚.

It's a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and represents the consensus of the IETF community. It went through public review and was approved for publication by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Not every document the IESG approves is a candidate for any level of Internet Standard, so check Section 2 of RFC 5741 if you want the details 🤓.

For the current status, any errata, and how to send feedback, go to http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7207 🔗.

Copyright Notice ©️

Copyright (c) 2014 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved 🌈.

This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) as in effect on the date of publication. Please read these carefully, because they describe your rights and restrictions for this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions, and they're provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License 🫶.

Table of Contents 📑

1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
2.  Namespace Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
3.  Community Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
4.  Registration Template for the Eurosystem URN Namespace  . . .   4
5.  Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
7.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
  7.1.  Registration of Formal URN Namespace 'eurosystem' . . . .   7
8.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
9.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
  9.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
  9.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7

1. Introduction 🌸

The European System of Central Banks (ESCB) is made up of the European Central Bank (ECB) [ECB] and the national central banks (NCBs) of all 27 EU Member States (Article 107.01 of the Treaty), whether or not they've adopted the Euro currency 💶. One central bank in the ESCB is Deutsche Bundesbank [DBBK], which, for the purpose of this document, is acting on behalf of the ESCB. The term Eurosystem refers to the entity made up of the ECB and the NCBs of those member states that have adopted the Euro currency. For more on the tasks of the ESCB and the Eurosystem, check the ECB web site ([ECB], [ESCB], [Eurosystem]) 🏦.

The ESCB runs TARGET2 (Trans-European Automated Realtime Gross Settlement Express Transfer), which is the market infrastructure system, an interbank payment system that processes cross-border transfers in real time all across the European Union ⚡. The ESCB is also building TARGET2-Securities, a future securities settlement platform that offers a new, harmonized, and centralized way to settle securities in central bank money 🔥. The Eurosystem started the TARGET2-Securities project as platform owner in 2006, and it's still under development 🛠️. Four Eurosystem central banks, namely Deutsche Bundesbank, Banque de France, Banca d'Italia, and Banco de Espana (4CB), are in charge of building and running the platform 👑. For details, see [T2S_ECB] and [T2S_DBBK].

Future TARGET2-Securities users will talk to the platform through messages (sets of structured information) that follow the ISO 20022 Standard [ISO20022-RA] 💜.

This document specifies and registers with IANA a URN Namespace for the Eurosystem. It'll start out with names for abstract and concrete entities used in TARGET2-Securities messaging, but it may be used for similar purposes in the future 🧚.

2. Namespace Considerations 🦋

The goal of the requested namespace is to keep the names of the various items used in messages exchanged between the Eurosystem and TARGET2-Securities users (or potentially other future Eurosystem projects) stable and unique 🔒.

It's super important that names of items, like the XML schema that describes the message itself, can still identify the resource even years after the message was exchanged 🕰️. This context calls for a new namespace that is owned by the Eurosystem and kept under its perpetual control 👑.

The messaging context of these identifiers calls for Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) as specified in Internet STD 66 [RFC3986] 🎀.

The persistent identifiers we need are protocol-independent resource names. The same resource might exist in several physical locations and therefore be reachable through several URLs, but there's a need for one abstract identifier to act as a handle (name) for it 🫧.

So the logical choice for this namespace is Uniform Resource Names (URNs), as defined by [RFC1737] and [RFC2141] (and its work-in-progress successor), by specifying a new URN Namespace [RFC3406] for the Eurosystem 💅.

3. Community Considerations 💜

Eurosystem messages that carry the resource names are exchanged over IP networks 🌐. Even though the assigned URNs will mostly be used inside messages carried in cryptographic digital envelopes or Virtual Private Networks, the message-related resources being persistently named still need to be referred to and resolved on the public Internet 🔐. The transparency requirements (needed to establish and keep up public trust in the financial transaction systems), open software development processes, and software deployment all require the origin and authority of the URNs to be easy to identify, and the URNs to be resolvable on the public Internet 👀. URI references to Eurosystem resources will be used alongside identifiers drawn from previously standardized Formal URN Namespaces allocated to other international treaty organizations, so it's mandatory that the authority behind the new URNs be easily and clearly identified, and be at a perceived "equivalent" standards level, parallel to the existing ones 🙌. That's why a mnemonic, Formal URN Namespace Identifier is needed for this purpose ✨.

So this document specifies a "Formal URN Namespace" using the procedures laid down in RFC 3406 [RFC3406]. It also brings in some of the additional information being discussed for RFC 3406's work-in-progress successor, and puts it into the registration template below 📋.

The requested URN Namespace Identifier (NID) is 'eurosystem' 🎀.

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That's Part 1 done! 🌈 The registration template, example, security, and IANA sections come next in Part 2 💖

7.1. Registration of Formal URN Namespace 'eurosystem' 🎀

Okay so IANA keeps the registry of URN Namespaces [IANA-URN] 📚, and it has registered a brand new Formal URN Namespace with the NID 'eurosystem' 💖. That was done under BCP 66 [RFC3406], using the registration template from Section 4 above. Iconic! 👑

8. Acknowledgements 🫶

The authors want to thank Subramanian Moonesamy and Alfred Hoenes for their advice and constructive input 💜. They also thank David Black and the IESG for their Last Call comments, which helped make this document even better ✨.

9. References 🧚

9.1. Normative References 💅

[RFC2141]  Moats, R., "URN Syntax", RFC 2141, May 1997.

[RFC3406]  Daigle, L., van Gulik, D., Iannella, R., and P. Faltstrom,
           "Uniform Resource Names (URN) Namespace Definition
           Mechanisms", BCP 66, RFC 3406, October 2002.

[RFC3986]  Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform
           Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", STD 66, RFC
           3986, January 2005.

9.2. Informative References 🌸

[DBBK]     "Deutsche Bundesbank", <http://www.bundesbank.de/>.

[ECB]      "European Central Bank", <http://www.ecb.int/>.

[ESCB]     The European Central Bank, "ECB, ESCB and the Eurosystem",
           <http://www.ecb.int/ecb/orga/>.

[Eurosystem]
           The European Central Bank, "The Eurosystem - The European
           System of Central Banks", ISBN 978-928990267-0, 2008,
           <http://www.ecb.int/pub/pdf/other/escb_en.pdf>.

[IANA-URN] IANA, "Uniform Resource Names (URN) Namespaces",
           <http://www.iana.org/assignments/urn-namespaces/>.

[ISO20022-RA]
           ISO 20022 Registration Authority, "ISO 20022 - Universal
           financial industry message scheme",
           <http://www.iso20022.org/>.

[RFC1737]  Sollins, K. and L. Masinter, "Functional Requirements for
           Uniform Resource Names", RFC 1737, December 1994.

[T2S_DBBK] Deutsche Bundesbank, "TARGET2-Securities",
           <http://www.bundesbank.de/Navigation/EN/
           Core_business_areas/Payment_systems/TARGET2_securities/
           target2_securities.html>.

[T2S_ECB]  European Central Bank, "ECB: About T2S",
           <http://www.ecb.int/paym/t2s/about/about/html/
           index.en.html>.

Authors' Addresses 💌

Miriam Ortseifen
Deutsche Bundesbank
Wilhelm-Epstein-Strasse 14
D-60431  Frankfurt
Germany

EMail: iso20022@bundesbank.de


Gunnar Dickfeld
Deutsche Bundesbank
Wilhelm-Epstein-Strasse 14
D-60431  Frankfurt
Germany

EMail: iso20022@bundesbank.de

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And that's the whole thing, bestie 🦋✨ Two authors from Deutsche Bundesbank, one shared contact email, and a whole eurosystem URN namespace that's officially on the books 👑💅