Organizational Relationship

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An Organizational Relationship represents a defined association between two Organizations.

The relationship identifies how one Organization is related to another Organization within a specified business, legal, operational, administrative, contractual, or regulatory context.

An Organizational Relationship identifies:

• The source Organization
• The target Organization
• The Relationship Type
• The applicable context
• The authority or basis for the relationship when applicable
• The Effective Period when applicable
• Applicable Evidence References
• Applicable Provenance References

Examples of Organizational Relationships include:

• Parent Organization and subsidiary
• Head office and branch
• Organization and Organizational Unit
• Principal and agent
• Service provider and customer
• Clearing member and client
• Custodian and account holder
• Regulatory Authority and regulated Organization

The Relationship Type determines the meaning and direction of the relationship. The Relationship Type also determines whether the relationship is symmetric, asymmetric, transitive, exclusive, or subject to other constraints.

An Organizational Relationship remains distinct from the Identity of either participating Organization. Creating, modifying, or ending an Organizational Relationship does not, by itself, create, modify, replace, or remove either Organization.

An Organizational Relationship also remains distinct from a Role Assignment. An Organizational Relationship relates Organizations to one another. A Role Assignment identifies how a Party participates in a specified context.

association between two Organizations that identifies the nature of their connection within a specified context

Adapted from:

• OMG Commons Organizations Ontology

  • Relevant concepts and relationships: Organization, Organization Membership, Organizational Part, and Organizational Structure
  • Retrieved: 2026-10-08
• OMG Commons Parties and Situations Ontology

  • Relevant concepts and relationships: Party, Situation, Role, employment, ownership, control, and relationships between Parties
  • Retrieved: 2026-10-08
• W3C Organization Ontology

  • Relevant concepts and relationships: Organization, Formal Organization, Organizational Unit, suborganization, membership, reporting relationship, and organizational collaboration
  • Retrieved: 2026-10-08
• Financial Industry Business Ontology, Corporate Control Ontology

  • Relevant concepts and relationships: ownership, control, parent company, subsidiary, and affiliated Organization
  • Retrieved: 2026-10-08
• Financial Industry Business Ontology, Formal Organizations Ontology

  • Relevant concepts and relationships: Formal Organization, employment, membership, and organizational relationships
  • Retrieved: 2026-10-08

This corpus defines the expression Organizational Relationship. The referenced sources define specific relationships among Organizations but do not necessarily define a concept having this exact name or scope.

• An Organizational Relationship relates exactly one source Organization to exactly one target Organization in the FX Information Model
• An Organization may participate in zero or more Organizational Relationships
• Two Organizations may participate in more than one Organizational Relationship
• The Relationship Type determines the meaning of an Organizational Relationship
• The Relationship Type determines whether the source and target positions are interchangeable
• A self-referencing Organizational Relationship is permitted only when the applicable Relationship Type expressly permits it
• An Organizational Relationship may depend on a business, legal, contractual, operational, administrative, or regulatory context
• A time-dependent Organizational Relationship identifies its applicable Effective Period
• Ending an Organizational Relationship does not remove either participating Organization
• An Organizational Relationship does not, by itself, establish ownership, control, regulatory responsibility, liability, or authority to act
• Applicable Evidence establishes the factual or authoritative basis for an Organizational Relationship
• An Organizational Relationship remains distinct from a Role Assignment
• The platform-independent definition does not require a particular database representation, programming-language class, message type, DDS Topic, IDL type, or serialization format

Example Holdings and Example Bank are separate Organizations.

Example Holdings owns Example Bank. The Information Model records an Organizational Relationship having:

• Example Holdings as the source Organization
• Example Bank as the target Organization
• `Parent Organization Of` as the Relationship Type
• The applicable corporate-ownership context
• The acquisition date as the beginning of the Effective Period
• The ownership record as supporting Evidence
• The source and processing history as Provenance

The Organizational Relationship does not replace either Organization's Identity. Ending the relationship does not remove Example Holdings or Example Bank from the Information Model.

Example Bank also provides settlement services to Example Brokerage. The Information Model records this as a separate Organizational Relationship having `Settlement Service Provider For` as its Relationship Type.

The ownership relationship and service-provider relationship remain separate, even when they involve the same Organizations.