At the head of that charge is the New York-based Financial Services Instant Messaging Association, which formed last year as the Instant Messaging Standards Board, in response to increasing demand for IM access by clients and employees, and concerns by IT about investing in systems that couldn't interoperate with others.

Last month, the group -- now with its new moniker -- announced the addition of a slew of banking and equities-trading powerhouses to its ranks, bringing the total participation to 20 firms. It also appointed Deutsche Bank's Graham Lawlor to the post of co-chair, alongside long-time chair Ursula Mills, of UBS.

The association's growth over the past year attests to IT decision makers' increasing efforts to grasp the technology -- particularly as concern mounts over the growing applicability of instant messaging within industry regulations governing electronic communication.

"The SEC and the NASD have come out with some very detailed requirements as far as logging and archiving of electronic communications, and have made it explicit that IM is part of that definition, and that any institution regulated by those bodies needs to come into compliance with those regulations," Lawlor said. "There's a lot of concern and activity around implementing solutions that address those regulations ... That's one big driver behind the growth of FIMA and the growth of interest in FIMA, both from the member organizations and vendors."

But there's still a great deal that needs to be done. For one thing, Lawlor pointed to the necessity for the financial services industry to speak with a single voice on interoperability concerns, in order to prompt changes from vendors.

"It's that type of pressure -- purchasing power, if you will -- that's going to shape instant messaging and the level of interoperability that you're going to see going forward," he said.

But at the same time, he didn't rule out the role of standards bodies, like the IETF, in independently developing frameworks for interoperability.

"Certainly, we support standards," he said. "We don't endorse any particular standards or standards bodies, but to the extent that standards promote interoperability, which they often do, we are very supportive of them."

Until either leading vendors in the space adopt interoperability agreements or communications standards, IM vendors' lack of interoperability will limit the usefulness of their technology in financial services, he said.

"IM is very heavily utilized within the financial services community, particularly at large institutional banks, broker-dealers, etc.," Lawlor said. "Virtually all use at least one IM system, and often, more than one. It's very important for these organizations to communicate internally in real time, and also with their customers and counterparties outside the organization ... However, many IM systems are not compatible with each other and are not interoperable, so you end up with a lot of separate, disparate communities that cannot send messages between and among them."

In addition to hastening interoperability among IM platforms in use by the industry, a second priority for the group is ensuring that features sought by financial services firms are, in fact, being implemented by vendors.

"Security, encryption, authentication, logging and archiving of messages -- especially per recent regulatory requirements in the U.S. and elsewhere -- are all important in addition to interoperability," he said. "We want to promote the common features that are requirements of FIMA members ... to vendors and standards bodies that are involved with IM."

As FIMA grows in size and prominence within the financial services industry, it's also hoping to woo the participation of leading vendors in the space. So far, of the major players in public instant messaging, only Yahoo! has signed on as a participating vendor partner. That's in spite of a process for becoming a vendor partner that Lawlor described as consisting largely of "filling out a survey."

"We don't endorse any particular vendor over another, and are anxious to talk to any IM vendor who fulfills the requirements of FIMA members," Lawlor said. "I look forward to receiving a submission from any of the major players, or potential major players, in the market."

While FIMA's efforts, out of necessity, focus on the needs of its own industry, its work could also prove highly relevant in guiding similar efforts in additional segments of the economy -- particularly in other sectors under heavy regulation, like energy and healthcare -- as IM penetration grows.

"IM ... is becoming more and more adopted within enterprises of any industry," he added. "People see great benefits in and realize great benefits from IM ... I think, given that as adoption increases and IM proliferates in financial services and more requirements come out of that proliferation, you'll see more interest in organizations in promoting their requirements in an industry forum like FIMA."

Christopher Saunders is managing editor of InstantMessagingPlanet.com.