FIMA History The IMSB (Instant Messaging Standards Board) was formed in April 2002 to help achieve non-product-specific IM connectivity across the financial services industry. A number of sell-side and buy-side organizations came together, on a voluntary basis, when they recognized that they were all independently attempting to solve the same problems: - How to respond to the increasing demands of our clients that we use the IM product of their choice, resulting in multiple IM products taking up valuable real estate on the desktop; - How to ensure that any investment now in enterprise or external IM solutions would not have to be written off at a later date. In October 2002, the group rebranded itself as FIMA (the Financial Services Instant Messaging Association) and issued its first press release (.doc).