ISO 20022

Current payment legacy systems, infrastructures and operating models are becoming outdated and challenged by technological advancement. To address the existing frictions and to realize the vision of faster, cheaper and more transparent payments, industry working groups such as:

• Cross-Border Payments and Reporting group (CBPR)+
• Payments Market Practice Group (PMPG)
• High Value Payments Systems Plus (HVPS)+

have set the goal to harmonize global payments on the ISO 20022 standard. They are defining guidelines for a consistent use across all jurisdictions and ensure an aligned rollout approach.

Introducing ISO 20022 as a common language and model for payments messaging has manifold benefits, like:

• Data quality – rich, structured and meaningful data
• Interoperability – common digitally native standard
• Efficiency – less frictions and manual interventions
• Flexibility – new data elements and higher granularity
• Automation – machine-readability and coded processes

All this will enable new client experiences in global payments and beyond addressing the needs of today and those of tomorrow.

The new MX format replaces the established MT1xx, MT2xx and MT9xx series messages. That means:

• Commercial payments MT103 will migrate to pacs.008
• Interbank payments MT202 will migrate to pacs.009
• Transaction reporting messages MT9xx will migrate to camt messages

In addition, status and return messages pacs.002 and pacs.004 will be introduced. Exceptions and Investigations process messages will be migrated to MX over time.
The new format is natively a machine-readable code and needs some training and experience to get some understanding also of new terms like Instructing and Instructed Agent. More details and latest updates on the new message types as well as detailed specifications are available under the links below: