Swift’s ISO 20022 migration set back a year to November 2022
Swift’s ISO 20022 migration has now been set back a year to the end of 2022, after initial roll out was expected by November 2021.
The decision to push back the migration follows banks’ lack of readiness on an infrastructure level for the move.
Its eventual implementation is expected to revolutionise cross-border payments
Swift describes its ISO 20022 as “an emerging global and open standard for payments messaging”.
“It creates a common language and model for payments data across the globe,” the financial transaction network says. “One that provides higher quality data than other standards which means higher quality payments for all.”
Swift claims the delay was put in place so that every firm, regardless of size, has enough time to ready their systems for the changes.
“The new approach will avoid short-lived investments by customers and offer new capabilities,” Swift says.
Its eventual implementation is expected to revolutionise cross-border payments. But currently, banks are struggling to adapt their systems to the new risk involved with being ready for the migration.
Whilst the migration date has changed, the end-date to enable full ISO 20022 for cross-border payments remains as originally planned, November 2025.
ACI Worldwide’s general manager and real-time payments head, Craig Ramsey, says the changing of the ISO 20022 migration date “is not a reason for financial institutions to take the foot off the gas”.
He adds: “The end date has not changed – the date by when all banks must have converted everything and be self-supporting,”
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