SWIFT, the global financial messaging network, has announced further progress across its recently initiated ISO 20022 Harmonisation Charter project, which includes the endorsement of over 20 market infrastructure providers, according to a SWIFT statement.
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Last month, SWIFT formed a High Value Payments taskforce, part of its global initiative to help police its payments infrastructure, which aimed to provide oversight for the ISO 20022 messaging standard. The agenda has since attempted to address industry concerns around fragmentation and the risk of multiple versions and variants being adopted across various markets.
Since its launch, the project has been met with a warm reception from across the industry, highlighted by the endorsement of 20 market infrastructure groups, in conjunction with many other participating organizations including Payments associations, market practice groups, central banks and Exchange groups.
Industry Backing
In particular, the ISO 20022 Harmonisation Charter has also garnered support from the Payments Market Practice Group (PMPG) and the Securities Market Practice Group (SMPG).
SWIFT’s ISO 20022 Harmonisation project is constituted by a comprehensive Charter, which features a total of four best practice principles. The paramount goal of the project is to help financial market infrastructures (FMIs) reiterate their support for SWIFT’s recommendations and their willingness to implement the principles into their own ISO 20022 initiatives.
The Charter requires FMIs to undergo multilateral information between FMIs regarding ISO 20022 usage, as well as adhering to global market practice. Moreover, the charter will see the introduction of stricter message version control and release management process and timing. Finally, the charter calls for the utilization of more up-to-date information about standards on a common platform.
Patrik Neutjens
According to Patrik Neutjens, ISO 20022 Programme Director at SWIFT, in a recent statement on the progress of the project: “In the year since we launched the ISO 20022 harmonisation charter, the global support for the initiative has grown exponentially. We are very pleased with the great effort that has been put forward by the FMI community and we look forward to welcoming additional participants as ISO 20022 implementation plans become more defined.”
