Table of contents
What are the benefits of ISO 20022 and how does it differ from MT?
When exchanging financial information, including via MT messages, specialists in different domains or countries have developed their own jargon and can use different words to refer to the same concept. The ISO 20022 standard can help to overcome barriers linked to the use of these different syntaxes and semantics. It is a global, open standard that describes a modelling methodology to capture – in a syntax independent way – financial business areas, business transactions and associated message flows.
The ISO 20022 methodology starts with the definition of the business model which is a central dictionary of commonly agreed business items used in financial communications. The second layer builds on the first by defining logical messages using the previously defined business concepts. Within these, individual elements, such as ‘InterbankSettlementAmount’ and ‘InterbankSettlementDate’ can be reused. Finally, the syntax (physical representation) of the logical message will be specified.
Thanks to its structured and richer data elements, ISO 20022 enables counterparties, intermediaries, and beneficiaries to increase automation in transaction processing, reducing costly manual interventions, and improving visibility on cash flows and cash positions, for example, in payment transactions. It provides banks with better insight into the business purpose of a financial transaction, enabling the provision of improved value-added services.
Businesses, as payment users, can gain more insight from their payments data into the behaviours and choices of their customers, as more complete and accurate party data leads to more effective and efficient screening, compliance, and anti-money laundering (AML) processes. Lastly, payments scenarios such as ‘Payment on Behalf of’ (POBO) can be fully supported, avoiding complex workarounds.
How does ISO 20022 organise financial message definitions?
ISO 20022 is a standards development methodology used by multiple business domains. These include payments clearing and settlement, payment initiation, cash management, securities trades and settlement, account management and trade services management.
The Swift community has approved the adoption of ISO 20022 for cross-border payments and reporting (CBPR+) messages, starting March 2023, for general availability, and from August 2022 (on an opt-in basis). This is the focus of the ISO 20022 programme, encompassing standards market practices, translation rules and services, and customer and vendor awareness campaigns. The aim is to ensure financial institutions can send ISO 20022 messages from November 2022, whatever the format preference of the other banks in the payment chain.
Payment market infrastructures, including major reserve currencies such as EUR, USD, GBP, SGD, and AUD, are also adopting ISO 20022 and are committed to go-live by the end of 2023. Swift encourages and supports the adoption of ISO 20022 (HVPS+) by instant and real-time gross settlement systems to align with the richer format of cross-border payments.
We are also helping to enable other market initiatives, including the SRDII and CSDR European regulatory requirements, to complement ISO 15022-based messages in securities. Other business domains will continue to use existing standards (FIN/MTs), including corporate to bank, securities, trade, forex and market infrastructures.
What is CBPR+?
Cross-border Payments and Reporting Plus (CBPR+) are the usage guidelines that define how ISO 20022 is used for Cross-border Payments and Reporting Plus (CBPR+) is the usage guidelines that define how ISO 20022 will be used for correspondent banking on the Swift network. The CBPR+ working group has created a collection of usage guidelines, covering payment, clearing and settlement (pacs) and cash management (camt) messages. Translation rules have also been created for selected messages in this collection, related to the equivalent Swift MT Category 1, 2 and 9 sets of messages.
The usage guidelines are publicly available on MyStandards and include downloadable XML Schema, PDF and Excel specifications. The MT <> CBPR+ translation rules and logic are available on the CBPR+ translation portal.
What is HVPS+?
High-Value Payments Plus (HVPS+) are the usage guidelines which originated as part of the ISO 20022 harmonization High-Value Payments Plus (HVPS+) is a usage guideline template which originated as part of the ISO 20022 harmonization initiative. It defines how ISO 20022 should be used for high-value payments market infrastructures. This group has specified usage guidelines that market infrastructures should use with their participants.
The HVPS+ usage guidelines are publicly available on MyStandards, and cover payment, clearing and settlement (pacs) and cash management (camt) messages. To ensure consistent usage and interoperability, ISO 20022 guidelines for HVPS+ and CBPR+ are fully aligned, allowing for minor business differences, such as settlement method.
When will MT messages for cross-border payments and reporting be decommissioned?
MT messages supporting cross-border payments and reporting transactions will be decommissioned in November 2025. The coexistence period, starting from 20 March 2023, will be facilitated by the In-flow Translation service, a central translation service providing interoperability between the ISO 20022 and MT formats.
More information on MT/MX equivalent and CBPR+ roadmap below.
Will there be any standard release for MT and MX from now until the decommissioning of MT in November 2025?
As per Swift board paper IR864, "no further maintenance is planned for MT category 1, 2, or 9 messages (so no ongoing maintenance for FIN/MT payments applications).
More information
- CBPR+ development roadmap for 2022-2024 is available here.
- Managing MT and MX releases timelines here.
Please note the Payment Standards Maintenance Group will be discouraged from approving any changes during the MT/MX coexistence period unless they are deem critical or required by regulatory reasons.
You can check for updates and announcements of maintenance releases through the annual standards release process.
When can I start to send and receive camt.053? Can I relay structured remittance information with 940?
On the FINplus swiftnet service, the camt.053 can only be exchanged between eligible users, that are SUPE and NOSU. The CBPR+ working group will document a market practice for using the camt.053 for vostro/nostro reconciliation and guidance.
What new messages will be implemented for CBPR+ by November 2025?
There will be two additional CBPR-plus releases:
- In Nov 2023 - Additional usage guidelines will be deployed, and more information can be found here
- In Nov 2024 - the CBPR plus working group is developing additional guidelines that should be live in Nov 2024- Final scope will be communicated in due course.
Will Swift phase out messages out of scope of CBPR+ post-November 2025?
There is no plan to migrate those messages and they can therefore still be used post-November 2025.
There are three data elements for dates in the instruction messages. Which dates need the offset, and which one is considered the value date?
The Creation Date in the Business Application Header (BAH) and the Group Header, require using offset. The Interbank Settlement Date (Value Date) is the date that the account will be debited/credited and cannot use offset time, as only the eight-character set is allowed.
When can I use the pacs.004, pacs.002 and/or camt.056?
Using pacs.004, pacs.002 and/or camt.056 depends on the settlement method that is applied in the underlying payment. If you receive a pacs.008 with the code INGA and the creditor closed their account, the settlement has already happened. In that case, you send the pacs.004 returning the funds. If the settlement method is INDA, instead of debiting their account, you send a pacs.002 rejecting the payment. If you send the pacs.008 and you need to cancel, you have two options: You can either send the camt.056 or simply cancel the instruction in the Tracker with the SRP.
With the MT 210 I can send several notifications. Can I do the same with the camt.057?
Yes, but it must be bilaterally agreed.
When can I use the pacs.004, pacs.002 and/or camt.056?
Using pacs.004, pacs.002 and/or camt.056 depends on the settlement method that is applied in the underlying payment. If you receive a pacs.008 with the code INGA and the creditor closed their account, the settlement has already happened. In that case, you send the pacs.004 returning the funds. If the settlement method is INDA, instead of debiting their account, you send a pacs.002 rejecting the payment. If you send the pacs.008 and you need to cancel, you have two options: You can either send the camt.056 or simply cancel the instruction in the Tracker with the SRP.
In the case of cover method. If the Debtor Agent sends the pacs.008 with Settlement Method COVE, they will immediately send the pacs.009 COV to their Reimbursing Agent. If they need to cancel the pacs.008, do they need to send two cancellation requests? One for the pacs.008 and one for the pacs.009 COV?
There is no need to send two cancellation requests. You send the cancelation request camt.056 or through Stop and Recall procedures to the Creditor Agent. You do not need to send the cancelation request to your Reimbursing Agent in the cover flow. When the reimbursing agent credits the creditor agent, they will return the funds. This is market practice.
