Business Systems Group

RNS Replacement Technical Specification

Regulatory News Service

RNS Replacement

Technical Specification

January 2007

Table of Contents

1Introduction......

1.1Purpose of This Document......

1.2Assumptions......

2RNS Technical Specifications......

2.1Vendor Output Future Specification......

3Customer Support......

APPENDIX A : EXISTING NEWSML SPECIFICATION FROM TIS104 SERVICE DEFINITION

APPENDIX B1 : EXAMPLE EXISTING NEWSML FROM LIVE SYSTEM

APPENDIX B2 : EXAMPLE EXISTING NEWSML FROM LIVE SYSTEM

APPENDIX B3 : EXAMPLE EXISTING NEWSML FROM LIVE SYSTEM

APPENDIX C : Imbedded CSS Stylesheet Formatting

APPENDIX D : EXAMPLE NEW NEWSML INCLUDING XHTML

APPENDIX E : DETAILED FSA FORMS

APPENDIX F : EXAMPLE XSD SCHEMA

1Introduction

The Regulatory News Service (RNS) ensures that price-sensitive information issued by listed companies is distributed to market participants quickly and fairly. This underpins the orderliness of the UK securities market. In addition RNS is responsible for global news distribution and regulatory filings into Europe and the US.

The Exchange is currently in the process of designing a replacement infrastructure and updating standards as various systems and components are end of life in terms of support.

The project aims to produce RNS News Messages that more closely reflect the submissions of organisations, simplify the message and speed up the process of distributing news announcements.

Details of testing services will be provided in a separate publication.

1.1Purpose of This Document

The purpose of this document is to specify the changeto RNS Specifications for Customer Feeds.

1.2Assumptions

The FSA are currently in a consultation period for the implementation of the Transparency Directive CPO604. This includes potential introduction of structured outputs for certain form types.
It is understood that some of these changes may not be implemented until 2008 as a response to the introduction of MiFID, however, the XML has been included in this specification to cover the possibility of 2007 introduction.
If there is no introduction in 2007 no messages containing standard FSA XML tagging will be used.
Customers connecting to Infolect will be able to process the new XHTML format within the NEWSML messages

2RNS TechnicalSpecifications

Specification: / InfolectMessage Formats Unchanged
Description: / Infolect messages will be unchanged and the NEWSML will be incorporated in multiple instances of the existing “5NT Announcement Messages Text” 400 byte fields as it is today.
RNS will allow a message to be spread across 9999 messages rather than the existing 2500 messages. This change will not affect Infolect.
Specification: / NEWSML Headline
Description: / The Announcement Headline is included in the Infolect Message Header and additionally within the NEWSML contained in the “5NT Announcement Messages Text”.
The Infolect Message Header “Headline” field will remain unchanged at 29 characters
The existing NEWSML non-body section will contain the same XML headline field but the Headline text will be changed to create a headline length up to 50 chars.
Specification: / NEWSML XHTML
Description: / The existing NEWSML body will be changed.
The existing body of the NEWSML specifies XHTML 1.0 as the format. This specification will be retained and used (XHTML is not populated in existing messages).
Specification: / RNS Standard CSS Style Sheet
Description: / RNS announcements will be created according to an RNS specific style sheet which will be published on the World Wide Web.
This stylesheet will be available tocustomers and it is strongly recommended that this stylesheet is used as announcements will be formatted for this style : other styles may cause problems with readability.
This style sheet will define the default body text font, if it has not been explicitly defined by the Contributor using the RNS edit interface. This style doesnot need to form part of the specification (with the exception of the URL where the CSS will live). Customers will always be given warning of any future changes to this style sheet even though changes could technically be automatically handled by customer systems.
Specification: / NEWSML Embedded Stylesheet Formatting
Description: / The NEWSML message will be transmitted with presentation functionality that defines the look of messages. This will be supported by a standard RNS stylesheet formatting defined in Appendix C.
These styles will be embedded into an announcement using the "style" HTML attribute, and will override the standard CSS stylesheet. For example:
<p style="color: red; font-style: italic;">some text to show in red italic</p>
Specification: / NEWSML XSD
Description: / The NEWSML message will be defined by an XML XSD definition template. This will be used by vendors and vendor customers to build functionality that reads the NEWSML messages. This is fully defined in the attached Appendix F
Specification: / NEWSML FSA Standard Forms
Description: / The FSA has announced plans to introduce 3 standard XML forms for specific company reporting. As explained at the start of this document in the Assumptions, these plans have yet to be ratified and the option of including or excluding these forms must be available in the system.
The FSE Standard Forms :

HOL : Notification of Major Interest in Shares
POS : Notification of Transaction in Own Shares
RDS : Notification of Transaction of Directors

The detailed messages are defined in Appendix E.
These messages will be inserted into their own ContentItem section within the NEWSML :
e.g.
NewsML
<ContentItem
………….
………….
………….
</ContentItem>
<ContentItem Href="Location of other media placed here"
<MediaType FormalName="PDF"/>
<Format FormalName="URL"/>
</ContentItem>
<ContentItem Href="HOL">
………….
………….
………….
</ContentItem>
Specification: / Embedded Media & PDF
Description: / URL links to media and PDF files will be included.
Media or PDF files in a zipped format can be included in a CDATA section of the xml. This capability is required at system go-live but will not initially be used. Pictures in the main body will not be allowed (to avoid the possibility of a picture being pasted accidentally instead of text by a contributor).

2.1Vendor Output Future Specification

The following specification is included for information to allow customers to plan for potential future changes. This will not be implemented with the RNS replacement changes.

Specification: / NEWSML Extended Messages
Description: / The maximum Infolect size for an announcement is 9999messages * 400bytes = 3.7MB.
An extension NEWSML field to indicate a continuation announcement is planned for future developments (dependent on the need for capacity and bandwidth in the future).

3Customer Support

Client Technology Group

The Client Technology Group will provide technical support during the implementation of these changes via:

The Technical Information Desk - Tel: 020 7797 3939, STX 33939
E-mail Client Technology Group

Technical queries may also be raised directly through your Technical Account Manager.

Primary Account Manager (PAM)

Please contact your Primary Account Manager directly for all other queries of a commercial or business nature.

Page 1 of 39

RNS Replacement Technical Specification

APPENDIX A : EXISTING NEWSML SPECIFICATION FROM TIS104 SERVICE DEFINITION

NewsML is an XML based encoding for news endorsed by the IPTC. Forfurther information on NewsML please refer to IPTC NewsML Version 1.0Functional Specification and IPTC NewsML DTD v1.0.

The following NewsML example contains RNS Announcement Data for acorrection to a previous announcement.

Original Announcement:

RNS ID: 1200A

Release Date & Time: 19 July 2001 10:30:00

Current Announcement (Correction):

RNS ID: 1234A

Release Date & Time: 20 July 2001 11:15:00

Highlighted in the example below is the RNS data that has changed. Theremainder may be considered a static 'wrapper' used to contain the data.

This will not vary between announcements.

Text in bold indicates RNS data that will vary between announcements.

NewsML elements in italics indicate optional elements that may be omittedfrom announcements depending on the announcement details.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE NewsML SYSTEM "NewsML-xhtml.dtd">

<Catalog Href="

<FormalName Scheme="CompanyLongName">ABC Company Holdings Plc</FormalName>

<FormalName Scheme="CompanyShortName">ABC Company Hldgs</FormalName>

</Topic>

<TopicType FormalName="Company"/>

<FormalName Scheme="CompanyLongName">Related One Plc</FormalName>

<FormalName Scheme="CompanyShortName">Rel One</FormalName>

<Property FormalName="CompanyType" Value="IRS"/>

</Topic>

<TopicType FormalName="Company"/>

<FormalName Scheme="CompanyLongName">Related Two Plc</FormalName>

<FormalName Scheme="CompanyShortName">Rel Two</FormalName>

<Property FormalName="CompanyType" Value="Listed"/>

</Topic>

<TopicType FormalName="Company"/>

<FormalName Scheme="CompanyLongName">Related Three Plc</FormalName>

<FormalName Scheme="CompanyShortName">Rel Three</FormalName>

<Property FormalName="CompanyType" Value="Listed"/>

</Topic>

<TopicType FormalName="Company"/>

<FormalName Scheme="CompanyLongName">Related Four Plc</FormalName>

<FormalName Scheme="CompanyShortName">Rel Four</FormalName>

<Property FormalName="CompanyType" Value="IRS"/>

</Topic>

</TopicSet>

</Topic>

</TopicSet>

</NewsEnvelope>

<ProviderId>londonstockexchange.com</ProviderId>

<PublicIdentifier>urn:newsml:londonstockexchange.com:20010719:1200A:2

</PublicIdentifier>

</NewsIdentifier>

</Identification>

</NewsManagement>

<NewsComponent xml:lang="en" Essential="no" EquivalentsList="yes"

Duid="NC00001">

<BasisForChoice>./ContentItem/MediaType/@FormalName</BasisForChoice>

</Provider>

</AdministrativeMetadata>

<NewsComponent xml:lang="en" Essential="no" EquivalentsList="no"

Duid="NC00002">

<HeadLine>The headline of the Announcement</HeadLine>

<DateLine>London,July20</DateLine>

</NewsLines>

</Source>

</AdministrativeMetadata>

<TopicOccurrence Topic="#C1" HowPresent="Related"/>

<TopicOccurrence Topic="#C2" HowPresent="Related"/>

<TopicOccurrence Topic="#C3" HowPresent="Related"/>

<TopicOccurrence Topic="#C4" HowPresent="Related"/>

</DescriptiveMetadata>

<Property FormalName="PreviousRNSNumber" Value="1200A"/>

</Metadata>

<head>

</head>

<body>

<pre>The first line of preformatted text.

The second line of preformatted text.

The nth line of preformatted text.

The last line of preformatted text.</pre>

</body>

</html>

</DataContent>

</ContentItem>

</NewsComponent>

<NewsComponent xml:lang="en" Essential="no" EquivalentsList="no"
Duid="NC00003">

<HeadLine>Webcast from ABC Company Holdings Plc</HeadLine>

<DateLine>London,July20</DateLine>

</NewsLines>

</Source>

</AdministrativeMetadata>

<OfInterestTo FormalName="RNS"/>

<TopicOccurrence Topic="#CM"/>

<TopicOccurrence Topic="#C1" HowPresent="Related"/>

<TopicOccurrence Topic="#C2" HowPresent="Related"/>

</DescriptiveMetadata>

</ContentItem>

</NewsComponent>

</NewsItem>

</NewsML>

The following bullet points provide a detailed explanation of the elements,attributes and values within the above example.

The Href attribute of the Catalog element contains a pointer to thevocabularies which apply to the FormalNames of certain elements.

The main company and any related companies of the announcementsare contained within a TopicSet element with a FormalName of

"Companies".

The main company to which the announcement relates is contained in aTopic element with a Duid of "CM". Separate FormalName elementscontain Scheme attributes defining the company descriptor type e.g.TIDM.

<FormalName Scheme="CompanyLongName">ABC CompanyHoldings plc</FormalName>

<FormalName Scheme="CompanyShortName">ABC CompanyHldgs</FormalName>

</Topic>

The Duid is referenced in the DescriptiveMetadata of the NewsComponentelements holding the announcement text and optional webcast URL. Thiscreates a link between the main company and the text and video

NewsComponents to which it is related.

Any related companies may be described in the following Topicelements. These may be omitted if no related companies are present, ora maximum of 4 related companies may be included with Duids rangingfrom "C1" to "C4". As with the main company, separate FormalNameelements contain Scheme attributes defining the company descriptor.

<FormalName Scheme="CompanyLongName">Related OnePlc</FormalName>

<FormalName Scheme="CompanyShortName">RelOne</FormalName>

</Topic>

The Duid is referenced in the DescriptiveMetadata of the NewsComponentelements holding the announcement text and the optional webcast URL. Thiscreates a link between the related company and the text and videoNewsComponents to which it is related.

The category of the announcement is contained within a TopicSet

element with a FormalName of "RNSCategories".

The category of the announcement is contained in a Topic element witha Duid of "CT".

</Topic>

The Duid is referenced in the DescriptiveMetadata of the NewsComponentelements holding the announcement text and the optional webcast URL. Thiscreates a link between the category of the announcement and the text andvideo NewsComponents to which it is related.

The DateAndTime and DateId elements will contain the release Date and

Time of the current announcement.

The DateAndTime element is formed from the complete date representationin basic format followed by the time designator (‘T’) and the complete timerepresentation in basic format followed by the Coordinated Universal Time.

No separators shall be used. This format is specified in ISO 8601. TheNewsML specification used prefers this element to include the differencebetween the local time and Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). i.e.CCYYMMDDTHHMMSSHHMM

The NewsProduct element defines the type of news contained within the

NewsML. In the case of RNS this may be "RNSRegulatory" news or

"RNSNonregulatory" news only.

<NewsProduct>RNSRegulatory</NewsProduct>

The DateId is set to the release date of the current announcement. The

date must conform to CCYYMMDD

The ProviderId element contains the domain name for the London Stock

Exchange

<ProviderId>londonstockexchange.com</ProviderId>

The NewsItemId contains the RNS number of the ORIGINALannouncement, NOT the correction. This allows the RNS data toconform to the IPTC NewsML specification. The RNS number of thecurrent announcement may be found in the Metadata element.In most cases, the announcement will not be a correction to a previousannouncement, i.e. it will be an original, so the RNS Number in theNewsItemId element will match the current RNS Number in the Metadata.

The NewsML above contains an announcement which is a correction toa previous announcement. This is indicated by the revision number of"2".

<RevisionId PreviousRevision="1"

update="N">2</RevisionId>

If another correction is made to the announcement, the PreviousRevision willincrement to "2" and the RevisionId will increment to "3". An originalannouncement will have a revision number of "1" and the PreviousRevisionattribute will read "0".

The PublicIdentifier will be constructed from a standard prefix includingthe domain name and then the date, followed by the RNS Number of theORIGINAL announcement and the revision number of the currentannouncement.

<PublicIdentifier>urn:newsml:londonstockexchange.com:

20010719:1200A:2</PublicIdentifier>

The FirstCreated element will contain the release timestamp of theORIGINAL announcement.

<FirstCreated>20010719T103000+0000</FirstCreated

The NewsItemType element contains a FormalName element. TheFormalName attribute values are defined through an IPTC vocabulary.The FormalName attribute will always have the value of "News".

The ThisRevisionCreated element contains the release timestamp of thecurrent announcement.

The timestamp format must conform to the same format as described in theDateAndTime element.

The Status element indicates the status of the NewsML news item. Thiswill always be set to Usable for announcements released by the RNSdepartment.

The Urgency of regulatory announcements will be set at "4". Nonregulatoryannouncements will have a lower Urgency of "8". Again, thereis a vocabulary defined by the IPTC for the FormalName attribute.However, RNS will only use these two values.

A wrapper NewsComponent element will be included to hold the childNewsComponent elements containing the announcement text and, ifincluded, the webcast URL. The EquivalentList attribute will be set to"yes" if a webcast URL is supplied in the announcement, otherwise it willbe set to "no".

<NewsComponent xml:lang="en" Essential="no"

EquivalentsList="yes" Duid="NC00001"> .....

</NewsComponent>

The Role element will define the role of the NewsComponent. The valueof the FormalName is controlled by a vocabulary defined in the Catalogelement. Only three values will be used by RNS. "MAIN" denotes thewrapper NewsComponent. "MAIN TEXT" denotes the NewsComponentholding the announcement text and "VIDEO" denotes theNewsComponent holding a webcast URL.

The BasisForChoice element will only be included if a webcast URL isincluded in the announcement. If no webcast URL is included thiselement will be omitted. The element will give the reasons for choosingbetween the announcement text or the webcast. For RNS, this willalways be set to the media type i.e. text or video.

<BasisForChoice>./ContentItem/MediaType/@FormalName</

BasisForChoice>

The provider of the NewsML containing the RNS data is the LondonStock Exchange Plc.

</Provider>

A NewsComponent holding the announcement text will always bepresent in the NewsML

<NewsComponent xml:lang="en" Essential="no"

EquivalentsList="no" Duid="NC00002">

Within the NewsComponent holding the announcement text, the headlineof the announcement will be contained in the Headline element.

<HeadLine>The headline of the Announcement</HeadLine>

The dateline will contain the place of creation of the NewsML followed bythe month and day.

<DateLine>London,July20</DateLine>