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ISO 20022: Why After Almost 2 Decades it’s More Important than Ever

Posted by Tiffany Taylor and Kristen Jason on 26 Oct 2022

ISO 20022 is a globally accepted messaging standardization approach (methodology, process, repository) to be used by all financial standards initiatives as a common platform for the development of messages. It was introduced in 2005 by the International Organization for Standardization to help financial institutions streamline their communication infrastructure by using the same language for all financial communications. 

Today, ISO 20022 is used by payment systems in over 70 countries.  It is estimated to be the de facto standard for high-value payment systems of all reserve currencies, supporting 80% of global volumes and 87% of value of all global transitions in the coming years. This common language is now an emerging global and open standard for payments data and is the expected future standard of fintech innovation and competition. ISO 20022 utilizes richer, higher quality data than other standards, driving improved payment outcomes that can easily adapt and are not controlled by a single interest. According to SWIFT, the benefits of ISO 20022 specifically include:
  • Better data - ISO 20022 enables richer, better structured, and more granular data for payments messages
  • Higher quality payments - higher quality data means more transparency and more remittance information for customers, which means better customer service
  • Improved analytics - less manual intervention is required, compliance processes are more accurate, and fraud prevention measures are improved
  • A foundation for end-to-end automation - with a single standard for all business domains and processes, new services are more easily created, and straight-through processing is enhanced
  • Uses modern technology - ISO 20022 uses XML (Extensible Markup Language) technology, which defines rules for encoding documents in a format that’s readable by both humans and machines. This allows for fast and single integration of systems, even if a financial institution is running a legacy platform. 
  • Worldwide adoption - ISO 20022 is already becoming more pervasive, almost 200 market infrastructure initiatives are implementing the standard or are considering adopting it. 
 

What does this mean for the U.S. market?

In 2017, The Clearing House RTP network was the first new central clearing and settlement system introduced that adopted ISO 20022. In addition, The US Federal Reserve Bank has announced that it will also adopt ISO 20022 for its new FedNOW payment rails. Additionally, it will migrate its existing messaging formats to ISO 20022 in the first quarter of 2025. SWIFT has started migrating all cross-border and many-to-many payments onto ISO 20022. So while the U.S. market is somewhat late to the ISO 20022 game, we are rapidly adopting the standard, and financial institutions need to adapt to take advantage of all of the rich data and operational efficiency this standard brings to the market. 

Financial institutions that have recently undergone digital transformation projects will have the advantages of systems that were built around the ISO 20022 standard. Other institutions will have a lot of work to do when it comes to bringing their systems up to speed or overhauling their infrastructure altogether. However, they can mitigate their risks by partnering with the right fintech. Alacriti’s Orbipay Payments Hub employs data and message models based on the ISO 20022 standards. This allows financial institutions to offer real-time payments to their account holders without needing an entire infrastructure overhaul, and helps lay the foundation for a full digital transformation into the next era of payments.

Microservices and open APIs go hand in hand with ISO 20022 to assist in payment modernization. Read more in Microservices and API Architecture: Lesson 1. 

Updated from a blog originally published November 2, 2020.

Alacriti cloud-based platform with open APIs based on ISO 20022 standards, Orbipay, provides solutions for real-time payments, EBPP, and digital disbursements. This provides a flexible integration framework to enable easy integration with internal systems (core banking, fraud, risk management, etc.), and your organization can easily add support for new payment schemes as they become available. To speak with an Alacriti payments expert, please contact us at (908) 791-2916 or info@alacriti.com.

Tiffany Taylor Blog Contributor Tiffany Taylor is a technology marketing professional with broad expertise in a number of marketing disciplines and financial technology expertise including payments, retail and digital banking, core processing, and lending. As the owner of Tiffany Taylor Marketing, Tiffany brings a well-rounded perspective to FinTech marketing and creative content development.
Kristen Jason Director of Product Marketing Kristen is responsible for marketing strategy and content for Alacriti while staying abreast of industry trends. She offers over 17 years of marketing experience, including 8 years of experience in financial technology and payments. Kristen holds a Bachelor of Science in both Psychology and Business Administration from Florida A&M University and a M.B.A from the University of Central Florida.