ISO 20022 in-flow translation: A new language for payments

With the pursuit of a unified standard for financial messaging, the ISO20022 migration has become an industry-wide transition. The plurality of standards incorporated by institutions, market participants, and infrastructures leads to inefficiencies, automation barriers, and global connectivity challenges. SWIFT’s survey revealed that approximately 90% of cross-border payments work on unstructured ordering and beneficiary data, leading to atleast 10% of transactions requiring manual intervention. ISO 20022 aims to address these challenges by establishing a worldwide standard for communication.

ISO 20022 in-flow translation: A new language for payments
Remember, ISO20022 adoption has vast implications across the payments value chain. If you still need to do the implications, it is time to plan your journey.
ISO 20022 Messages

Key Stats for Banks to know about ISO 20022

Whether directly or indirectly involved in payment operations, you need to understand how ISO 20022 affects your organization and your processes. We presented many factors on the ISO 20022 migration journey for banks to build the necessary expertise and capacity within their institution and to plan for a smooth transition and reap the benefits of the ISO 20022 structure and methodology.

Industry testing

It's time to better align with the market timelines and adoption strategies to standardize/harmonize the formats/data exchanges across financial institutions (FI's) and financial market infrastructures (FMI's).

Process and systems

Maintain updated systems and processes to fulfil sanctions and AML controls based on new party fields in the chain.

Archive data

Ensure to provide richer, better structured, and more granular data end-to-end in payment messages per each jurisdiction's regulations.

Data availability

Have innovative solutions to make enriched data improved analytics, less manual intervention, more accurate compliance processes, higher resilience, and enhanced fraud prevention measures.

Structured data

Be prepared to maintain transparent interoperability with cross-border payments, together with CBPR+ compliance concerns regarding the completeness and structure of data

Important dates to keep in mind for ISO 20022

As March 2023 marked the migration period to ISO 20022 messages with a coexistence period with MT messages until November 2025, so it is pertinent for financial institutions to have an in-flow translation or local translation services until their back office is natively ready to process ISO messages. The In-flow Translation service facilitates the conversion of comprehensive ISO 20022 messages into the prevailing MT format.
This caters to banks that may not be fully prepared to process ISO 20022 messages promptly. The service guarantees the delivery of both message formats, thereby ensuring uninterrupted access to complete data for customers. Consequently, all financial institutions within the Swift network can sustain regular transactional activities throughout the industry’s migration phase from November 2022 to November 2025.

CBPR+ and HVPS+ Ready

CBPR+ and HVPS+ Ready for ISO 20022
Cross-border Payments and Reporting Plus (CBPR+) specification defines how ISO 20022 is to be used for cross-border payments and cash reporting between financial institutions. The High Value Payment System (HVPS+) defines how ISO 20022 will be used in regional clearing systems.

SWIFT, major global banks, and market infrastructures have formed CBPR+ and HVPS+ to ensure conformance so that users can implement ISO 20022 specifications correctly. ECS Fin has received the SWIFT self-attested and compatibility label, and on the way to become CBPR+ certified to compliant message standards and connectivity.

Minimizing disruption and ensuring readiness

Are you able to integrate hundreds of systems in a matter of weeks and still have full visibility and control to every movement and processing of data? ECS is taking action to minimize disruption and ensure that FIs and banks are ready for migration, including those banks that will not initially adopt ISO 20022 in the back office. And our In-Flow Translation means banks have a full year to familiarise themselves with the mandatory changes on the way.

1.

non-disruptive approach to the adoption of ISO 20022.

2.

Support for all Global, Regional, and Local ISO 20022 mandates/initiatives.

3.

Native ISO support for all Payment rails: ACH, RTGS, SWIFT, RTP, and crypto payments.

4.

SWIFT readiness: CBPR+, HVPS+, CSP and gpi.

5.

Modular migration approach across multiple Payment rails.

6.

Achieve Higher and Faster STP rates at a lower TCO.

7.

Enhanced levels of Compliance: Security, Risk, and Regulatory. 

8.

Deliver a more delightful and stable digital experience to your customers.