- The final cutover to the rich data standard occurred successfully on 22 November as the period of coexistence with the MT message format ended
- ISO 20022 will elevate the customer experience in today’s fiat currency systems and lay foundations for a digital currency future
- Richer, structured data enabled by ISO 20022 lays the ground for expanded innovation across the international financial ecosystem – boosting operational efficiency and compliance, deepening customer insights and taking the end-user experience to the next level
BRUSSELS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The global financial community has unleashed a new era for global payments innovation with universal adoption of ISO 20022 as the standard language for cross-border payments worldwide. The final switch happened on 22 November, with the end of coexistence with the traditional MT message format.
The move elevates customer experience in today’s fiat currency system in support of the G20 goals for international payments, enabling faster, more efficient and data-driven payments.
The landmark achievement reflects years of coordinated work across financial institutions, payment market infrastructures, and the wider Swift community – starting in 2018 when the financial community chose to adopt the standard for cross-border payments. Endorsed by the G20 and the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI), ISO 20022 is considered a key enabler of an enhanced cross-border payments experience. It elevates the payment experience, while its flexible and extensible format provides a strong foundation for digital transformation.
In March 2023, Swift began a period of coexistence with the MT format for cross-border payments and reporting (CBPR+) to enable a smooth transition for the community. That coexistence period ended over the weekend, and ISO 20022 is now required for all payment instructions.
Yesterday we observed 97% of payment instructions sent using ISO 20022. A conversion service is in place to automatically convert remaining MT instructions to the ISO 20022 format for a period to ensure the smooth flow of global payments.
Jerome Piens, Chief Operations Officer at Swift, said: “This has been a huge achievement for the global industry, and a collective effort in upgrading the global payments experience. ISO 20022’s rich, structured data is foundational to the future of payments – and a cornerstone of Swift’s strategy to enable an instant, frictionless, interoperable, and inclusive future. This switch will both enhance risk and control capabilities to better support compliance requirements and lay the foundations for the next generation of payments.
“The new standard will power our strategic initiative to create a payment scheme to guarantee a consistently fast, predictable and transparent experience for retail customers worldwide, and will also enable the foundations for our blockchain-based shared ledger, to allow the trusted movement of tokenised value, thereby bringing together TradFi and DeFi for a fully interoperable financial ecosystem of the future.”
Now that the community has successfully transitioned to ISO 20022, the focus can shift from format readiness to realising the value of structured data. Swift is continuing to work with the community to realise the full benefits of the new standard, providing guidance, tools, and analytics to help institutions measure, optimise and innovate using ISO 20022 data.
About Swift
Swift is a global member owned cooperative and the world’s leading provider of secure financial messaging services. We provide our community with a platform for messaging and standards for communicating, and we offer products and services to facilitate access and integration, identification, analysis and regulatory compliance.
Our messaging platform, products and services connect more than 11,500 banking and securities organisations, market infrastructures and corporate customers in more than 200 countries and territories. While Swift does not hold funds or manage accounts on behalf of customers, we enable our global community of users to communicate securely, exchanging standardised financial messages in a reliable way, thereby supporting global and local financial flows, as well as trade and commerce all around the world.
As their trusted provider, we relentlessly pursue operational excellence; we support our community in addressing cyber threats; and we continually seek ways to lower costs, reduce risks and eliminate operational inefficiencies. Our products and services support our community’s access and integration, business intelligence, reference data and financial crime compliance needs. Swift also brings the financial community together – at global, regional and local levels – to shape market practice, define standards and debate issues of mutual interest or concern.
Headquartered in Belgium, Swift’s international governance and oversight reinforces the globally inclusive character of its cooperative structure. Swift’s global office network ensures an active presence in all the major financial centres.
Contacts
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