Set to become the common language for all global financial communications, the first draft of the ISO 20022 message has been published this week, months after the Payments Council reached an international agreement for real time payments to work with the standard in June.
The ISO 20022 standard was developed to facilitate electronic data interchange between financial institutions and supports interoperability between all parties part of the payments process.
The announcement was made by the ISO Real-Time Payments Group (RTPG), a group facilitated by Payments UK and made up of over 50 global experts in the field, in order to expand and encourage professionals to use this messaging standard in more countries.
Chief executive of Payments UK, Maurice Cleaves believes that there is a bright future for ISO 20022 messaging. “ISO 20022 is likely to be a real game-changer globally and domestically, enabling a level of interoperability we have never seen before. The Payments UL team is deeply involved in this important work which not only helps us maintain the UK’s position as a lead on the global stage but also aligns with domestic delivery of world-class payments,” Cleaves said.
Many countries and regions are considering implementation of these real-time payment systems and are drafting the technical documentation which will help support the market in the future. Alongside this, Payments UK are advising stakeholders in the industry to come forward and get involved in reviewing the drafts in order to ensure the creation of a representative and global standard.
The market has seen many versions of the ISO 20022 standard and decision makers have thought it best to embrace these variances, and SWIFT agrees with this. “As no two organisations are the same, SWIFT recognises that there is “no one-size-fits-all” approach to the implementation of ISO 20022. However, given the extent of ISO 20022 global adoption, it is likely that other communities have undertaken similar implementations within similar domains,” SWIFT says.
The RTPG will continue to work on the next set of ISO 20022 messages and will update their strategy at SWIFT event SIBOS in October for three days in Singapore.
