Assessment
Assessment is the part of certification in which the Registry satisfies itself that an applicant's systems do what the interoperability standards of the Velocity Interoperability Network require. Nothing else in the procedure turns on judgement to the same degree, and nothing else takes as long. This page sets out what is tested, how the testing is done and how the results are classified, so that an organisation preparing an application knows in advance what will be asked of it.
The framework below was published on 6 September 2026 by notice RN 2026/011 and applies to every assessment begun on or after that date, whether on a first application, on a re-assessment or at a periodic review. It will be revised as the standards develop; a revision is published by notice at least six months before it is applied, so that no organisation is tested against a requirement it has not had a fair opportunity to meet.
Every system that will exchange under the organisation's key is assessed separately. A system that has not been assessed may not exchange, and the addition of a system to a listing is itself an occasion for assessment. The Registry assesses the system as it will run, not a demonstration of it: an assessment made against a test build that differs from the build in service is of no value to the members who must rely on the listing.
The eight criteria
| Criterion | What is tested | Evidence required |
|---|---|---|
| Message conformance | That every message the system sends and accepts takes the form required by the interoperability standards of the Network, including the mandatory fields, the encoding and the version marker. | A complete set of sample messages for each exchange the system will make |
| Identity and key handling | That the system presents the organisation's own key in every exchange, presents no other key, and refuses an exchange whose counterpart key is not listed with the status Active. | The configuration under which keys are presented and checked |
| Transport security | That exchanges are carried over an encrypted channel, that certificates are validated on both sides, and that an exchange is abandoned rather than downgraded when validation fails. | A description of the channel and the results of the organisation's own tests |
| Availability and response | That the system answers within the response limits published for the service it offers, and that it publishes its own state so that counterparts can tell a planned outage from a failure. | Twenty-eight consecutive days of the organisation's own response measurements |
| Error handling | That failures are reported in the standard form, with a code a counterpart can act on, and that the system does not accept a message it cannot process or fail without saying so. | The catalogue of errors the system can return, with the conditions that produce each |
| Records and retention | That a record of every exchange is kept for the period required, that the record identifies the counterpart key, and that it cannot be altered after the fact. | The retention arrangements and a sample record |
| Access control | That only persons and systems authorised by the organisation can cause an exchange to be made under its key, and that authorisations are reviewed and withdrawn when they are no longer needed. | The list of roles that may exchange and the procedure for granting and withdrawing them |
| Incident reporting | That the organisation can detect an incident affecting its exchanges, report it to the Registry and to its counterparts within the period required, and account afterwards for what was done. | The incident procedure and the name of the officer responsible for it |
How an assessment is conducted
Step 1: Planning
The Registry writes to the organisation with the scope of the assessment: the systems to be tested, the criteria that apply to each and the evidence required. The organisation names an officer who will answer for the systems throughout and who may be present at every test.
Step 2: Conformance testing
The forty-one tests of the conformance suite are run against each system in the Registry's own test environment. The organisation is told the result of every test, whether it passes or fails, and may observe the run.
Step 3: Exchange trial
The system exchanges with two listed members chosen by the Registry, over five working days, under the organisation's proposed key. The trial is made against the counterparts' test endpoints; nothing exchanged in the trial has effect on the Network.
Step 4: Examination of governance and security
The Registry examines who within the organisation may cause an exchange to be made, how authorisations are granted and withdrawn, how records are kept and how incidents are handled. This part of the assessment is conducted on the papers, with such interviews as the Registry requires.
Step 5: Report of findings
The Registry sends a report listing every finding, its class and the criterion to which it relates. The organisation has ten working days to correct errors of fact and to remedy findings that can be remedied within that period.
Step 6: Re-test
Findings said to have been remedied are re-tested. Only the tests affected are run again; a re-test is not an occasion to revisit a test already passed.
Step 7: Recommendation
The officer conducting the assessment recommends that a certificate be issued, that it be issued subject to conditions, or that the application be refused. The Registrar decides, and the decision is sent to the organisation with reasons.
The conformance suite
The conformance suite is the fixed set of tests run against every system, in the same order and in the same environment. It is published in full to applicants on request. The class of a failure is fixed in advance by the group in which the test falls, so that the same failure is treated the same way whoever is assessed.
| Test group | Tests | Class of a failure |
|---|---|---|
| Message formats | 14 | Critical where a mandatory field is absent or malformed; otherwise major |
| Identity and keys | 6 | Critical in every case |
| Transport security | 7 | Critical, except a failure of certificate hygiene, which is major |
| Availability and response | 5 | Major where a limit is exceeded; minor where reporting alone is at fault |
| Error handling | 5 | Major where a failure is silent; otherwise minor |
| Records and retention | 4 | Major in every case |
Classes of finding
- Critical
- A finding that would allow an exchange to be made under a key that is not the organisation's own, would expose an exchange to interception, or would cause a counterpart to act on a message the system cannot honour. A critical finding must be remedied before a certificate is issued. There is no exception.
- Major
- A finding that would cause a counterpart to receive a wrong or incomplete result, or that leaves the organisation unable to account for what its systems have done. A certificate may be issued subject to a condition that the finding is remedied within a period set in the decision, normally sixty days.
- Minor
- A finding that does not affect the correctness of an exchange but departs from the standards, such as an error reported in a non-standard form. Minor findings are recorded and re-examined at the first periodic review.
- Observation
- A matter that is not a departure from the standards but that the Registry considers the organisation should know, such as a practice likely to cause difficulty as the standards develop. An observation carries no obligation.
Assessment in figures
- 8
- Criteria against which every system is assessed
- 41
- Tests in the conformance suite
- 5
- Working days of exchange trial with listed members
- 40
- Working days within which an assessment is completed
Testing against the Network
The Registry keeps its own test environment, separate from the Network, in which the conformance suite is run and the exchange trial is made. Nothing exchanged there reaches a member's production systems, and no key is accepted on the Network before the listing that reserves it takes effect.
The two members chosen as counterparts for an exchange trial are chosen by the Registry and not by the applicant. They are told only that a trial is to be made and against which of their test endpoints; they are not told the outcome, and they take no part in the decision.
Re-assessment, cost and confidence
An organisation whose application is refused after an unsatisfactory assessment may ask for one re-assessment. A re-assessment covers the criteria on which findings were made and any criterion affected by the change said to have remedied them; the rest of the assessment stands. It must be asked for within six months of the decision, after which a fresh application is required. From 1 January 2027 a re-assessment carries the fee set out on the Fees page.
Everything an organisation supplies for an assessment is treated as confidential to the Registry and is used for no purpose other than the assessment and any later review. The Registry publishes the fact of a certification and the particulars entered on the register. It does not publish findings, evidence or the contents of a report, and it does not disclose to one member what it has learned about another.
Questions about an assessment in progress should be put by the organisation's named officer. Other enquiries may be sent to contact@registry.gov.vin. The volume of assessment work is reported on the Statistics page.