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Migrate to ISO 20022 as an Opportunity for Growth

ISO 20022, the globally accepted format, enhances the quality and structure of financial messages. It provides rich data with each transaction, enabling enhanced analytics, status tracking, sanction checking, and automated invoice reconciliation. This improves the experience for end customers.

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Why Do You Need to Prioritise Migration to ISO 20022?

The November 2025 Deadline is Approaching Fast

ISO 20022, the globally accepted format, enhances the quality and structure of financial messages by providing rich data with each transaction. It enables better analytics, status tracking, sanction checking, and automated invoice reconciliation, thus improving operational efficiency for financial institutions and delivering a better experience for end customers.

ISO 20022 is central to every conversation we have around financial messaging due to its impact on cross-border payments and its use in real-time transactions globally. Its rich, structured data improves visibility and supports true interoperability in a global economy. However, as of April 2024, only 20.3% of Swift cross-border traffic was ISO 20022 native.

How Does ISO 20022 Benefit Your Business?

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Supports transparency and interoperability for domestic and cross-border payments.

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Lowers operating and transaction costs.

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Improves customer data insights and compliance to payment standards. 

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Increases automation and reduces manual intervention.

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Richer customer data aids reconciliation and enhances fraud capabilities.

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Creates new revenue streams through digital overlays.

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Improves customer service and the ability for customers to self-serve.

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Optimises business cycle cash flow. 

Three Phases to a Successful Adoption of ISO 20022

Minimise the impact on your customer’s current processes, whilst maximising the new value-add opportunities and operational efficiencies.

Phase 1: Upgrade Interfaces and Core Overlay Services to ISO 20022 native.

Gain access to a Centralised Data Store that enables transformation, enrichment, and validation of your legacy messaging translated into ISO 20022.

Phase 2: Enable New Messaging Services without Impacting Daily Operations.

Implement upgraded infrastructure and a customer impact assessment to prepare for launch. Enhance the data you need to make available.

Phase 3: Test and “Go Live” to the Market with ISO 20022 Payment Processing.

Complete important internal work and externally communicate the move to ISO 20022 to the market. Migration can take just 9-12 months to implement.

What’s Next after Connecting to ISO 20022?

An excellent panel of Nordea, NatWest and EBA Clearing join us to discuss Real-Time payments and the next steps after ISO 20022 migration. 

Choose a Tailored Solution for ISO 20022

We can leverage our global experience to forge a best practice approach. This will involve assessing your institutions unique challenges in order to build a tailored strategy that will help with a speedy and effective migration.

Option 1 - ISO 20022 Native

  • Ensure your back-office systems are ready to send and receive ISO 20022 messages
  • Confirm counterparty readiness
  • Set up and test new folder structures and routing rules
  • Subscribe to FINPlus and enable the service
  • Start sending and receiving all messages in ISO 20022 messages
  • Optionally enable Transformation and Enrichment service via Bottomline for counterparties unable to send MX

Option 2 - Market Ready

  • Confirm counterparty readiness
  • Implement the Transformation and Enrichment Service via Bottomline
  • Set up and test new folder structures, transformation and routing rules
  • Subscribe to FINPlus and enable the service
  • Start sending and receiving ISO 20022 messages only from the bureau
  • Migrate back office systems to ISO 20022 in your own timeframe

Option 3 - Connectivity Only

  • Set up and test new folder structures, transformation and routing rules for the new ISO 20022 messages
  • Subscribe to FINPlus and enable the service
  • Manage interoperability with in-flow translation from Swift
  • Move over to ISO 20022 at counterparty request, phased over the migration period
  • Message Storage - it is important that you consider a long-term storage solution for your sent and received messages to ensure that you can reference back if needed
Bottomline Technologies
TESTIMONIALS

What Our Customers Say

As a satisfied customer, we were confident that by partnering with Bottomline on the message transformation project, we would achieve our primary objective of being able to comply with the ISO 20022 messaging standards within the deadlines set by the BSP. Choosing Bottomline to work with on this project was simply a given.

The experience of onboarding to Bottomline’s hosted Universal Aggregator solution was straightforward, quick and seamless with the great assistance of the Bottomline project team to help with queries and the end-to-end process. The solution, alongside Bottomline’s Secure Payments, allows us to focus on the bank’s core business operations, whilst minimising the risk of payment fraud.

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FAQs

Everything you need to know about ISO 20022 to get started

What is ISO 20022 in a nutshell?

ISO 20022 is the emerging global standard for payments messaging. It creates a common language and model for payments data across the globe, which provides higher-quality payment information than other standards and adapts to new needs and approaches.

Many Market Infrastructures, including Swift, are moving their messages to ISO 20022 over the next 2 years. Clearing House Automated Payment System (CHAPS) and TARGET2 Euro payment (T2) are on track for delivery, plus Swift will adopt the rulebook of the Cross-Border Payments Reporting (CBPR+) working group, where there will be a coexistence phase of MT/MX messages up until 2025. Within five years, it’s predicted that around 80% of high-value global payments by volume and 90% by value will have migrated to ISO 20022.

What are some of the challenges companies face in postponing the migration to ISO 20022?

The challenges will be multiple and grow with time. Until you are ISO 20022 Native, you will need to manage translation, enrichment, and a co-existence of standards with counterparties and across your back-office systems. It will increasingly be difficult to manage the data required in ISO 20022 in the legacy standards.

How long would it take to complete the change in process?

A simple connectivity upgrade can be completed at a relatively low cost and over a few months. However, it is the wider impact of ISO 20022 that needs to be considered. Payment, Screening, Matching, and Monitoring Systems need to be able to support ISO 20022 and the additional data elements and increased structure and granularity. This will require upgrades, development, and project work to improve static data. This work will vary enormously by institution.

Are there any drawbacks to ISO 20022?

Technically there is more data to hold, process, and exchange. As a standard, it is more flexible and allows for more data to be exchanged. Market Practice will be key to ensuring that there is consistency in what is expected for transactions in each market. Along with global alignment through such groups as HVCS and CBPR.

How long will it take for everyone to change to it?

Most institutions will be technically ready to receive ISO 20022 in 2023, but many will still be processing in the legacy standards. We will then have a multi-year period of co-existence as markets and participants move over to using ISO 20022. We may see a slow take-up in the beginning and then a snowball effect as main markets and players start to send and ask to receive ISO 20022.

Starting to use ISO 20022 is not the end of the journey. Once participants are familiar with the standard, this will then be the catalyst for the introduction of more structured information. This will then be the beginning of the real benefits of adopting ISO 20022.

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