What is ISO 20022?
ISO 20022 (pronounced ‘ISO twenty-oh-twenty-two’) is a global standard for exchanging electronic messages between financial institutions.
It was first introduced by the International Organization for Standardization in 2004 to give the financial industry a standard platform for developing messages in one eXtensible Markup Language (xml) rule.
We’ll discuss this in a little more detail soon, but the migration to ISO 20022 is increasingly on the radar of UK businesses.
Why is it Important?
Just like languages around the world, there are different messaging standards and formats within the current financial landscape, each specific to their own geographies or business areas.
Put simply, there are a million different ways to say the same thing.
As fintechs and challenger banks continue to innovate, introducing new ways to pay in an increasingly globalised world, it’s now more essential than ever to make use of a common standard.
To synchronise the language used between new systems and traditional infrastructure to help realise end-to-end processing across domains and geographies.
So, ISO 20022 sets out to answer how implementing a global standard of financial messaging will:
In order to accomplish each of these goals, ISO 20022 overcomes two barriers:
So How Does SWIFT’s Standard Work?
SWIFT likens ISO 20022 to a recipe that comes with all the ingredients you need to put it together.
The result is a standardized way of communicating across borders and industries.
If we’re to continue the metaphor, the recipe is based on three separate layers:
1. Business processes and concepts
A key characteristic of the ISO 20022 methodology is the distinct separation between the business and the way it is represented in a message (the syntax).
So, the ISO 20022 methodology starts with defining the activity or business process, the roles and actors involved, as well as the information needed for the activity to take place. This data is then organised in to components containing business elements
2. Logical messages independent of syntax
Another key feature of ISO20022 is the ability to reuse components across all messages – no matter if it’s a credit transfer, credit card payment or FX transaction.
So, the logical message is a description of the information that is needed to perform a specific business activity, independent of syntax and made up of message components organised in a hierarchical structure.
3. The syntax
This relates to the physical representation of the logical message. XML is specified as the primary syntax, but other common types can be used – i.e. SWIFT proprietary or FIX syntax.
This is all stored in a common repository, which also comprises an ISO 20022 dictionary. Just like the Oxford English Dictionary, it lists components, their structure, definition and context around how they should be used or interpreted.
And because ISO 20022 is a free and open standard, anyone, anywhere can add their 2 cents to the dictionary to help write and build solid business standards across the globe.
ISO 20022 as an International Standard
ISO 20022 messages are designed to break down cross-border barriers and support global business needs for the foreseeable future.
By 2025, it’s estimated that over 80% of high value transactions will be done using ISO 20022. So, SWIFT’s involvement is crucial to its global adoption and standardisation.
As a brief timeline, SWIFT:
It’s common knowledge that SWIFT have their own MT messaging standard, which they update yearly. The two messaging standards currently coexist via a shared mapping service provided by SWIFT.
However, not all MT messages can be converted to ISO 20022, which is why the MT messaging standard will exist long in to the future.
In September 2018, the SWIFT board agreed to facilitate a migration to ISO 20022 for cross-border payments and cash.
This will include all users of payments and cash management messages (MT categories 1, 2, and 9).
Most countries are still working towards introducing a payments architecture that’s ISO 20022 ready, despite the impact of Covid-19 on the finance sector and business payment trends. The UK and the US are predicted to adopt the standard in 2022 and 2023 respectively, with ongoing enhancement and maturity phases.
But some countries are ahead of the curve, with many seeing Australia’s New Payments Platform (NPP) as the shape of things to come.
ISO 20022’s Place in the UK Payments Landscape
In June 2018, the Bank of England, Pay.UK and the Payment Systems Regulator issued a statement which accompanied proposals for introducing ISO 20022 compliant messaging to payments in the UK:
“By working together as an industry, we can safely deliver a complex but critically important and highly beneficial change, which will help create the conditions for the next generation of innovation in UK payments.” – Bank of England
What impact will ISO20022 have on corporates?
Despite changes starting to come in to effect from November 2022, we expect a transitionary period until 2025.
Currently the emphasis is on the banks preparations for accepting ISO20022 standardized messaging. Many ERP and other back-office providers also need to enable the creation of payment files within the new standardized format. For example, enabling the creation of files containing ISO enriched data will require changes to the properties used by an ERP to create payment files in the first place. The files themselves will also need to compatible with the new xml format.
Even with a 3 year transitionary period on the cards, this will eventually impact corporates making cross-border Treasury payments, CHAPs payments and other common payment types mentioned above. So its beneficial for corporates to have ISO20022 adoption on their radar and be aware of the roadmaps of their partner banks and ERP vendors.
To Conclude…
Standardising financial messaging through ISO 20022 not only offers a common, global language for corporates and financial institutions, but also brings about 3 main advantages:
- Linking messages to business processes means they’re easily and universally recognisable
- Reusing components means that institutions only need to map them to internal data structures once
- The use of xml syntax as an international open standard helps interoperability, enabling automated transfers and straight through processing across entire processing chains
Eventually, standardisation will lead to enriched data carried in payments messages to enhance analytics, improve compatibility and compliance across technology platforms, improve fraud prevention measures and create opportunities for collaboration.
Source: https://accesspay.com/knowledge-hub/payments/what-is-iso-20022/
