CreditRating (FIX tag 255)

StringFIX 4.4

CreditRating (tag 255) is a String field defined in FIX 4.4. It appears in 59 message types, always optionally.

At a glance

Tag: 255
Name: CreditRating
Datatype: String
Dialects: FIX 4.4
Messages: 59

What the specification says

An evaluation of a company's ability to repay obligations or its likelihood of not defaulting. These evaluation are provided by Credit Rating Agencies, i.e. S&P, Moody's. (Note tag # was reserved in FIX 4.1, added in FIX 4.3)

Descriptions are quoted from the FIX Orchestra sources under the Apache 2.0 licence.

A real message using tag 255

NewOrderSingle · FIX 4.4

Tag	Field	Wire value	Meaning
8	BeginString	FIX.4.4
9	BodyLength	123
35	MsgType	D	Order – Single
49	SenderCompID	BOARTEAM
56	TargetCompID	COUNTERPARTY
34	MsgSeqNum	2
52	SendingTime	20240101-12:00:00.000
11	ClOrdID	ORD-10042
255	CreditRating	EXAMPLE
54	Side	1	Buy
60	TransactTime	20240101-12:00:00.000
40	OrdType	1	Market
10	CheckSum	217

Edit and decode it yourself

Shown with | separators for readability. On the wire FIX uses SOH (0x01), an invisible control byte — and because BodyLength and CheckSum are computed over the actual bytes, the two forms have different checksums. Both are valid and both decode here.

Open in the full decoder →

Generated from the FIX 4.4 dictionary and verified at build time: it parses and validates with no issues. Open the decoder to try your own message.

Where tag 255 appears

Requiredness is a property of the message, not of the field: the same tag can be optional in one message and conditionally required in another.

Message	MsgType	Requiredness	Where in the message
Advertisement	7	Optional	inside the Instrument component
AllocationInstruction	J	Optional	inside the Instrument component
AllocationReport	AS	Optional	inside the Instrument component
AssignmentReport	AW	Optional	inside the Instrument component
CollateralAssignment	AY	Optional	inside the Instrument component
CollateralInquiry	BB	Optional	inside the Instrument component
CollateralInquiryAck	BG	Optional	inside the Instrument component
CollateralReport	BA	Optional	inside the Instrument component
CollateralRequest	AX	Optional	inside the Instrument component
CollateralResponse	AZ	Optional	inside the Instrument component
Confirmation	AK	Optional	inside the Instrument component
CrossOrderCancelReplaceRequest	t	Optional	inside the Instrument component
CrossOrderCancelRequest	u	Optional	inside the Instrument component
DerivativeSecurityList	AA	Optional	inside RelSymDerivSecGrp › Instrument
DontKnowTrade	Q	Optional	inside the Instrument component
Email	C	Optional	inside InstrmtGrp › Instrument
ExecutionReport	8	Optional	inside the Instrument component
IOI	6	Optional	inside the Instrument component
ListStrikePrice	m	Optional	inside InstrmtStrkPxGrp › Instrument
MarketDataIncrementalRefresh	X	Optional	inside MDIncGrp › Instrument
MarketDataRequest	V	Optional	inside InstrmtMDReqGrp › Instrument
MarketDataSnapshotFullRefresh	W	Optional	inside the Instrument component
MassQuote	i	Optional	inside QuotSetGrp › QuotEntryGrp › Instrument
MassQuoteAcknowledgement	b	Optional	inside QuotSetAckGrp › QuotEntryAckGrp › Instrument
MultilegOrderCancelReplace	AC	Optional	inside the Instrument component
NewOrderCross	s	Optional	inside the Instrument component
NewOrderList	E	Optional	inside ListOrdGrp › Instrument
NewOrderMultileg	AB	Optional	inside the Instrument component
NewOrderSingle	D	Optional	inside the Instrument component
News	B	Optional	inside InstrmtGrp › Instrument
OrderCancelReplaceRequest	G	Optional	inside the Instrument component
OrderCancelRequest	F	Optional	inside the Instrument component
OrderMassCancelReport	r	Optional	inside the Instrument component
OrderMassCancelRequest	q	Optional	inside the Instrument component
OrderMassStatusRequest	AF	Optional	inside the Instrument component
OrderStatusRequest	H	Optional	inside the Instrument component
PositionMaintenanceReport	AM	Optional	inside the Instrument component
PositionMaintenanceRequest	AL	Optional	inside the Instrument component
PositionReport	AP	Optional	inside the Instrument component
Quote	S	Optional	inside the Instrument component
QuoteCancel	Z	Optional	inside QuotCxlEntriesGrp › Instrument
QuoteRequest	R	Optional	inside QuotReqGrp › Instrument
QuoteRequestReject	AG	Optional	inside QuotReqRjctGrp › Instrument
QuoteResponse	AJ	Optional	inside the Instrument component
QuoteStatusReport	AI	Optional	inside the Instrument component
QuoteStatusRequest	a	Optional	inside the Instrument component
RFQRequest	AH	Optional	inside RFQReqGrp › Instrument
RequestForPositions	AN	Optional	inside the Instrument component
RequestForPositionsAck	AO	Optional	inside the Instrument component
SecurityDefinition	d	Optional	inside the Instrument component
SecurityDefinitionRequest	c	Optional	inside the Instrument component
SecurityList	y	Optional	inside SecListGrp › Instrument
SecurityListRequest	x	Optional	inside the Instrument component
SecurityStatus	f	Optional	inside the Instrument component
SecurityStatusRequest	e	Optional	inside the Instrument component
TradeCaptureReport	AE	Optional	inside the Instrument component
TradeCaptureReportAck	AR	Optional	inside the Instrument component
TradeCaptureReportRequest	AD	Optional	inside the Instrument component
TradeCaptureReportRequestAck	AQ	Optional	inside the Instrument component

Wire format

Free-form text. Any byte except the SOH separator is legal, so values are not trimmed or case-folded on the wire. @boarteam/fix keeps the value as a string; format rules are checked by validate(), which reports validate/invalid-value rather than throwing.

Read tag 255 in TypeScript

decode.tsts

import { createFixEngine } from "@boarteam/fix";import { dictionary } from "@boarteam/fix-dict-fix44";const fix = createFixEngine(dictionary);const { message, issues } = fix.parse(raw);const field = message.fields[255];field?.name;   // "CreditRating"field?.raw;    // the verbatim wire stringfield?.value;  // coerced to a string

Decode this in your own code

The same engine that produced the decoded example above is an Apache-2.0 npm package with zero runtime dependencies. It runs in Node and in the browser, and parse() returns problems as data instead of throwing.

npm i @boarteam/fix @boarteam/fix-dict-fix44

Try the decoder Source on GitHub