The collaboration builds on a 20-year partnership and advances a broader future positioning programme that began last year
Brussels, 6 November 2019 - Swift today announces initiation of the development phase with EBA CLEARING to migrate the large-value payment system EURO1 to the ISO 20022 standard, marking the next step in a transformation journey they began together last year.
The two organisations will work toward a November 2021 completion date to correspond with the deadline for the ISO 20022 migration of the Eurosystem’s TARGET2 platform. The goal is to align specifications and milestones to minimise effort by market participants during the transition and ensure seamless intra-day switching between both euro payment systems.
ISO 20022 creates a new language and structure for payments information, enabling the exchange of more and higher quality data that in turn improves efficiency, compliance and client experiences. Payment systems of all reserve currencies are moving to the standard, and Swift has put in place a robust programme to facilitate community-wide adoption.
Alain Raes, Chief Business Development Officer, Swift said: “The migration to ISO 20022 is a significant inflection point in the payments industry that promises a new era of possibilities. We are pleased to work with EBA CLEARING to unlock the potential and further a partnership of innovation that spans two decades. EURO1 users can count on us to support them throughout and deliver the same robust security, resilience and reliability that are hallmarks of the Swift network.”
Swift has provided the messaging layer for EURO1 and served as processing agent for the system operated by EBA CLEARING since its launch in January 1999.
The ISO 20022 migration is part of a larger future positioning programme that the two organisations announced last year after a comprehensive consultation with EURO1 users. The project seeks to evolve EURO1 in line with user expectations while maintaining benefits such as liquidity efficiency, immediate payment finality, cost-effectiveness and added resilience for high-value payments. The first deliverables, including a dashboard to enhance liquidity monitoring capabilities of EURO1 users, will be implemented before the end of 2019.
Erwin Kulk, Head of Service Development and Management, EBA CLEARING, said: “Since its launch in 1999, EURO1 has generated substantial cost savings for its participants and, with the migration to ISO 20022, it will be able to continue to do so in the future. We are striving to keep the EURO1-related efforts to a strict minimum for our users. To this effect, we are pleased that we are ready to move forward with our system developments in time and in maximal alignment with TARGET2, together with our EURO1 users and our long-standing EURO1 technology partner Swift.”
EURO1 is the only private sector large-value payment system for single same-day euro transactions at a pan-European level and has been identified as a systemically important payment system (SIPS) by the European Central Bank.
EURO1 processes on average 200,000 payments per day with an average total value of over EUR 200 billion. The system currently counts 45 participant banks and reaches nearly 20,000 BICs in and beyond Europe.
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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 11,000 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. Swift’s strategic five year plan, Swift2020, challenges Swift to continue investing in the security, reliability and growth of its core messaging platform, while making additional investments in existing services and delivering new and innovative solutions.
Headquartered in Belgium, Swift’s international governance and oversight reinforces the neutral, global character of its cooperative structure. Swift’s global office network ensures an active presence in all the major financial centres.
