It's not long until Standards Release 2008!

Standards Release 2008 goes live on 16 November 2008

Standards Release 2008 is now live

In line with the normal standards development and implementation procedures, SWIFT activates the Standards Release 2008 during the Allowable Downtime Window (ADW) of 15 and 16 November 2008. During this ADW, SWIFT implements the changes to the categories 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9, as published in the Standards Release Guide in December 2007.

The ADW starts on Saturday 15 November 2008 at 16:00 GMT, and ends on Sunday 16 November 2008 at 04:00 GMT.

SWIFT therefore recommends that you send, receive, and process all current mode SWIFT Standards messages, including system messages, prior to the ADW.

This release is critical if you use message types that are subject to a significant format change. If, for example, the 2008 format of a message has a new mandatory field in a mandatory sequence, then the message formatted to 2007 standards will be considered non-compliant due to the missing mandatory field. This message will then be rejected by the network.

You can find more details on Standards Release 2008 in the latest edition of the User Handbook Online > Standards > MT November 2008.