fibo-ontology-conventions

name	FIBO Ontology Conventions
description	Rules for creating OWL ontologies strictly following the FIBO naming and documentation conventions.

FIBO Ontology Conventions

When creating or refining OWL ontologies that represent financial concepts, you MUST follow these specific conventions, which align with the Financial Industry Business Ontology (FIBO) standards.

1. rdfs:label Formatting

All rdfs:label tags for Classes, Object Properties, and Data Properties MUST be strictly lowercase. Special characters (such as hyphens, parentheses, etc.) should generally be removed, leaving only alphanumeric characters and spaces.

Correct:

<rdfs:label>financial instrument</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:label>broker dealer</rdfs:label>

Incorrect:

<rdfs:label>Financial Instrument</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:label>Broker-Dealer</rdfs:label>

2. skos:definition Requirements

All business concepts MUST have a definition provided via the skos:definition property.

• Definitions should be formal English sentences describing the entity or relationship in a financial industry context.
• The skos:definition tag MUST explicitly include the language attribute: xml:lang="en".
• If a generic description exists, try to find a financial or legal specific description.

Correct:

<skos:definition xml:lang="en">A firm or individual that buys and sells securities for its own account or on behalf of its customers.</skos:definition>

Incorrect:

<skos:definition>A broker dealer</skos:definition>

3. Base URIs, Domain, and Folder Structure

Unless otherwise specified by a local project, new ontology documents and local URIs must use the standard Onto2AI URI convention:

• Base domain: http://www.onto2ai-toolset.com/
• Ontology base URI: http://www.onto2ai-toolset.com/ontology/[domain]/[OntologyName]/
• Default RDF namespace: the same slash-terminated ontology base URI.
• Do not append Ontology to the ontology file name or ontology URI name unless explicitly required.

Example Ontology Header:

<rdf:RDF xmlns="http://www.onto2ai-toolset.com/ontology/bank/AssetManagement/"
     xml:base="http://www.onto2ai-toolset.com/ontology/bank/AssetManagement/"
     ...>

Furthermore, the physical directory structure MUST map exactly to the URI namespace in the resource/ontology folder, translating the domain to a folder (e.g., www_onto2ai-toolset_com) and following the URI path.

Example Folder Structure for the above URI: resource/ontology/www_onto2ai-toolset_com/ontology/bank/AssetManagement.rdf

When ontology semantics change, update RDF first, align Cypher/schema artifacts second, validate with xmllint --noout <rdf_file>, and then update documentation references.

Object Property URI Rule

Object property URI fragments MUST be written as lowerCamelCase predicates that describe the directed relationship from domain to range.

Use patterns such as:

• isSalesRepresentativeOf
• hasClient
• linksToWealthManagementAccount

Do not use noun-only or role-only object property URI fragments such as SalesRepresentative, Trustee, or Client when the term represents a relationship. A valid quick check is that the URI fragment should read naturally in a triple-like sentence: Client isSalesRepresentativeOf Account.

4. Subclassing FIBO Core Concepts

Where possible, align and subclass new concepts from the core FIBO taxonomy.

• Party -> fibo-fnd-pty-pty:Party
• Account -> fibo-fbc-pas-caa:CustomerAccount

Ensure the relevant FIBO namespaces are declared in your XML/RDF header when doing this.

5. Acronym Expansion Rules

When extracting labels from raw URIs, specific, common banking acronyms must be fully expanded into formal English to ensure human readability and maintain a clean ontology.

Mandatory Acronym Expansions:

• HO -> Head Office
• Prm -> Primary / Ast -> Asset / Ownr -> Owner
• Prty / Prsn -> Party / Person
• Invc / Lnvc -> Invoice
• Ttee / Tste / DTtee -> Trustee / Directed Trustee
• Scy -> Security
• Bene -> Beneficiary
• Mgr -> Manager
• Svcr -> Servicer
• Cstdn / Cstdy -> Custodian / Custody
• Lnd Lrd -> Landlord
• Acctnt / Acctg -> Accountant / Accounting
• Csh -> Cash / Depr -> Depository / Rcpt -> Receipt
• WM -> Wealth Management / SAC -> Sub Account
• RIA -> Registered Investment Advisor
• TA -> Transfer Agency
• PE -> Private Equity
• LOB -> Line of Business
• Exctr -> Executor
• Pwr of Atty -> Power of Attorney
• Oth -> Other / Rel -> Relationship / Agr -> Agreement

OCR Artifact Handling If an OCR string is obviously corrupted but recognizable, replace it with the corrected expansion:

• Prud -> Provider
• Revr / Rc Vr -> Receiver
• SgnTy -> Signatory
• Bhf -> Behalf of
• Tpty -> Triparty / Third Party
• Xtnl -> External
• Srvc -> Service

If a term is explicitly "non legal party" or similar syntax originating from "OnNonLglPrty", "OnhonLglPrty", or "OnNonLgiPrty", it should always be expanded to exactly on non legal party and its definition should begin with Acting as [Role] (Applied to an entity not recognized as an independent legal person).

When those terms appear in object property URI fragments, convert them into predicate form, for example:

• isTrusteeForNonLegalPartyOf
• isCollateralProviderForNonLegalPartyOf