Governance

The rules, written before the first decision.

The Institute is sponsored and operated by Tomorrow. These three documents set out what that gives Tomorrow and what it does not, who decides the content of a standard, how the standards pass to the industry, and what members undertake.

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Standards Council Charter

Establishes who decides the content of the Institute’s OTC standards — the Event Contract Specification, the failure-pattern registry and the competency blueprint — and commits to handing them to the industry once the industry uses them.

Status: Draft — binding on the Institute now; to be adopted by the council when seated, after legal review. Published 28 Sep 2026.

1. Sponsor and board

1.1The Institute is sponsored and operated by Tomorrow, which funds it and appoints its board. The board sets the budget and appoints staff.
1.2The board does not decide the content of a standard, a conformance decision or a determination. Those belong to the Council.

2. Remit

2.1The Council owns: the Event Contract Specification, its Definitions, schema and identifier method; the failure-pattern registry; the competency blueprint; conformance decisions; and the appointment of any Determinations Committee panel.
2.2No version of a standard may be published as other than a draft without a Council vote.

3. Composition

3.1Between seven and eleven members, a majority of whom are independent of Tomorrow: no employment, directorship, equity, advisory or material financial relationship with Tomorrow, now or in the preceding two years.
3.2Seats are balanced across the OTC market — dealers and intermediaries, end-users and hedgers, academic research, and former regulators or public-interest representatives. No firm, Tomorrow included, holds more than one seat.
3.3Terms are three years, staggered, renewable once. A member is removed only by a two-thirds vote of the others, with reasons published.

4. Decisions

4.1A quorum requires a majority of members present, a majority of whom are independent of Tomorrow.
4.2A decision on a standard or a conformance claim passes only with a majority of the independent members present, in addition to a majority of all members present.
4.3Every decision is published with the vote, the reasons and any dissent.

5. Consultation

5.1Every change to a standard beyond a correction is put to public consultation for at least thirty days.
5.2All comments are published with the submitter’s name and affiliation, and the Council publishes its reason for accepting or rejecting each substantive point.

6. Openness and handover

6.1The text of every standard is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence, and anyone may implement it without charge. Neither the Institute nor Tomorrow will assert any intellectual-property right against an implementer.
6.2When at least 3 firms unaffiliated with Tomorrow have publicly declared that they use the Event Contract Specification in production confirmations — or earlier, if a recognised industry body asks — the Institute will, within twelve months, offer to transfer the Specification, its Definitions, schema and identifier method to a neutral industry body on royalty-free terms, and will publish the offer and its outcome.

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Sponsorship and Conflicts Policy

Says what Tomorrow’s sponsorship gives it and what it does not, and keeps anyone with a stake in a decision away from it.

Status: Draft — binding on the Institute now; to be adopted by the council when seated, after legal review. Published 28 Sep 2026.

1. The sponsorship

1.1Tomorrow sponsors, funds and operates the Institute and appoints its board. This is disclosed on the sponsorship page, in these documents, and in the footer of the Institute’s pages.
1.2The Institute works for the OTC event-contract market as a whole. Its research and standards are for every participant and are published to everyone at the same time.
1.3Tomorrow receives no early access to drafts, no private conformance status, and no exclusive licence to anything the Institute publishes.
1.4Text originating with Tomorrow enters a standard only through public consultation, and its provenance is recorded in the standard’s history.
1.5Research is published whether or not its findings favour Tomorrow. Tomorrow cannot prevent or delay a publication.
1.6The Institute does not market Tomorrow’s products and does not direct anyone to trade with Tomorrow.
1.7Any transaction between the Institute and Tomorrow, or anyone at Tomorrow, is at fair value, approved by board or Council members not employed by Tomorrow, and disclosed.

2. Conformance claims

2.1Any claim that Tomorrow, or a Tomorrow document, conforms to an Institute standard is assessed by assessors independent of Tomorrow, published with the assessment, and available to every other firm on the same terms and timetable.
2.2Council members from Tomorrow take no part in a decision on a conformance claim by Tomorrow or by a firm competing with it for the same business.

3. Who else it covers

3.1Council members, staff, fellows, assessors and Determinations Committee panellists (“Covered Persons”) disclose, on appointment, annually and within thirty days of any change, any employment, directorship, equity, advisory role or financial relationship with a dealer, intermediary, platform or resolution source in event contracts.
3.2Disclosures are published in the conflict register, except personal financial amounts, which are held by the Council.

4. Recusal

4.1A Covered Person with an interest in a decision takes no part in it — no vote, no drafting, no presence during deliberation — and the recusal is published with the decision it concerned.
4.2An interest includes that of an employer, a client, a firm the person advises, and an immediate family member.
4.3Determinations Committee panellists and assessors may not hold, or have held in the preceding ninety days, a position in any contract referred to them.

5. Other funding

5.1Tomorrow is the principal funder. Other funding is accepted on the same terms: no say in the content of a standard, a conformance decision or a determination, or in the appointment of any Covered Person. Every funder is named.

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Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct

What members, and holders of any qualification assessed against the Institute’s blueprint, undertake.

Status: Draft — binding on the Institute now; to be adopted by the council when seated, after legal review. Published 28 Sep 2026.

1. The Code

1.1Act with integrity, competence and diligence toward counterparties, clients and the public.
1.2Put the integrity of the market and the accuracy of its resolution ahead of your own or your employer’s position in it.

2. Standards of Professional Conduct

2.1I. Market integrity. Do not trade, or cause others to trade, on material non-public information about an outcome. Do not act to influence an outcome in which you or your employer hold a position.
2.2II. Resolution neutrality. When you draft, determine or review the resolution of a contract — including as calculation agent — do so on its stated terms alone, and disclose any interest before you begin.
2.3III. Contract design. Do not draft, offer or confirm a contract you know to be unresolvable as written, or whose terms you know a counterparty is likely to misread.
2.4IV. Disclosure. Disclose conflicts, and any intermediary role, to those affected before acting, in writing, and in terms they can understand.
2.5V. Fair dealing. Deal fairly with every counterparty, and do not misrepresent eligibility, documentation, collateral, risks or regulatory status.
2.6VI. Competence. Keep your knowledge current, and decline work you are not competent to do.
2.7VII. Confidentiality. Keep confidential what you learn in confidence, except where the law or this Code requires disclosure.
2.8VIII. Qualifications. Do not misrepresent what a qualification assessed against the Institute’s blueprint means. It attests to assessed competence. It is not a licence, a registration or an approval to advise, solicit or trade.
2.9IX. Cooperation. Cooperate with any inquiry under this Code, and report in good faith conduct you believe breaches it.

3. Enforcement

3.1Alleged breaches are heard by a Council panel with no conflict in the matter, and its findings are published. Assessing a qualification against the Institute’s blueprint is conditional on the issuer undertaking to act on those findings under its own rules.

How these documents are operated — the council's current state, the conflict register and the recusals recorded so far — is on Standards governance.