Slide
Regulatory
/
Tuesday
3
June
2025

ISO 200222 - 2025 migration as a tipping point

On May 15, Utsit hosted a webinar for the Association Française des Trésoriers d'Entreprise (AFTE) on the theme of "ISO 200222 migration: multiple adjustments for a successful transition to 2025".

The number of participants and the number of questions asked confirmed that the topic of ISO 20022 migration still generates a great deal of interest and questioning on the part of corporate treasurers, given the lack of coherence in the speeches, offers and subjects grouped under this generic term. It was therefore well worth a quick overview to clarify the context, challenges and opportunities offered by this migration.

First and foremost, it's important to remember that the genesis of what is commonly referred to as "ISO 20022 migration" stems from the desire of the major economic powers, via the G20, to facilitate the circulation of capital, not only for companies, but above all for individuals and, in particular, migrant workers. This is why the G20 has set itself the objective of making international transfers faster, more accessible, transparent, secure and less costly.

Responsible for implementing these objectives, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) in particular, have agreed to promote the use of ISO 20022 as an exchange standard to harmonize and optimize the processing of these transactions.

With this in mind, the main settlement systems (EUR, GBP, CAD, CNY, CHF, USD in part ...) have already transformed or are about to transform (USD; to be continued and completed in July 2025) their systems to this single standard, in order to harmonize their language. For full coverage to be achieved, the conveyors of these orders must also use the same standard, which is why Swift is also in the process of upgrading its messaging system, and will have completed its transformation by November 2025 (a few exceptions and special treatments will still be possible, but will no longer be part of the "standard" framework).

By the end of 2025, Swift estimates that 80% of settlement systems will have adopted this standard.

While the question of format and standard is essential to harmonize the language used by all those involved in a payment transaction, the question of data quality is just as important. And since banks, as part of their obligations to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism, are having to comply with an ever-increasing number of rules, they need to be able to use data that is sufficient and correctly structured to apply high-performance processing in order to avoid false positives, and thus speed up processing times and reduce costs. It is therefore only logical that the Payment Market Practice Group (PMPG), a working group under the aegis of Swift, has decided to impose the use of payment stakeholder addresses (issuer and beneficiaries, Ultimates and banks under certain conditions) in a more organized way.

This project has a major impact on payment issuers, who must ensure the quality of payee information in their various databases, and also between their systems, so that their payment orders meet the expectations and constraints of their banking partners. While the obligation to transmit beneficiary and bank address information is already in place, the need to transmit this information in a structured (or hybrid) way will be mandatory by November 2026 at the latest. In the event of a necessary update (of data or tools), the task is such that it is imperative to get down to work right away, or risk seeing a large proportion of your transfer orders rejected.

The need for issuers to better structure their payment data will also have consequences for the formats used to transmit their transfer orders to their banks, since many of the formats commonly used today do not (CFONB320), or very poorly (MT101), structure the data expected by banks to enable them to carry out their compliance checks.

The choice of exchange protocol used by a company to communicate with its banks is also important, since the FIN messaging system, incompatible with the ISO 20022 standard, is evolving towards FINplus in order to retain its main features and added value (notably message reachability and control), but adapted to XML messages. Corporate treasurers who use this messaging system, either directly or indirectly with their banks, will need to anticipate any potential impact. While there is no obligation on the part of Swift for companies to migrate from FIN to FINplus and replace MT messages, some banks have already scheduled and announced the end of these services for companies.

Also, more recent versions of exchange formats, such as pain.001 in its 2019 version (pain.001.001.09), offer new opportunities to better structure data or take advantage of new services. These include

- LEI: the use of this international identifier to identify a counterparty seems to be gaining ground as the ideal solution, rather than the use of a name whose form, language and abbreviations or acronyms can lead to numerous malfunctions.

- UETR: although the relevance of using Swift gpi is well established, the number of companies choosing to issue payments with their own UETR to enable payment traceability is still limited. The modernization of payment interfaces and systems could provide an opportunity to set up this service and make it fully autonomous.

- Date and Time: while the ability to add a time to the date in the Requested Execution Date tag may seem anecdotal atfirst glance, it's an essential prerequisite to facilitate the use of instant transfer remittances by businesses.

Also to promote the use of instant transfers, the entry into force of European regulation 2024/886 represents a major turning point with 2 important dates:

- January 9, 2025:

o The cost of an instant transfer may not exceed that of a SEPA transfer.

o Requirement for PSPs in the EUR zone to be able to receive SCT Inst

- October 9, 2025:

o Requirement for PSPs in the EUR zone to be able to issue SCT inst

o Removal of the legal ceiling of EUR 100,000 (but a technical limit per establishment is still possible)

o Requirement for banks to provide a free service to verify the consistency of the account number and the name (or identifier) of the beneficiary (also known as Verification of Payee or VoP).

The latter service raises many questions about the conditions under which it can be implemented and used by companies. Without going into the details of the various options available to companies to ask their banks to control or not their payments, and to execute them or not, we would simply point out that all initiatives aimed at securing payments issued by individuals and companies are welcome, and that these solutions in no way call into question the organizations or technical solutions already implemented to secure transfer orders. By way of comparison, just as seatbelts didn't prevent the development of airbags, VoP services complement existing security systems. It's up to each individual to find the right level of service with his or her banks, and the right way to exploit the information transmitted according to the 4 possible statuses(Match, Close match, No match, Not applicable).

Finally, the work carried out by companies on their databases and payment interfaces can also be an opportunity to anticipate other major regulatory changes, such as the implementation of electronic invoicing. Corporate treasurers can therefore work to improve the flow of data in their payments, to facilitate the identification of paid invoices and their automatic reconciliation on both sides.

As we have seen, the ISO 20022 migration project has been underway for several years now, and comprises a number of more or less interdependent phases, each with its own timetable. However, if these phases are carried out correctly by companies, they will all be able to reap the benefits of greater confidence in the efficiency of their payment operations, both domestic and international.

Share this article
To go further

Our other articles

Regulatory
/
Tuesday
3
June
2025

ISO 200222 - 2025 migration as a tipping point

Read the article
Payment
/
Monday
6
January
2025

EMVCo publishes Click to Pay guidelines

Read the article
DSP2
/
Wednesday
11
December
2024

Compliance: EBA answers questions on PSD2

Read the article
Fraud
/
Wednesday
4
December
2024

Fighting fraud: awareness-raising and vigilance at the heart of our systems

Read the article
Innovation
/
Thursday
28
November
2024

NOTICE OF PROPOSED MERGER BY ABSORPTION OF FOALKS GROUP AND UTSIT GROUPE

Read the article
Regulatory
/
Wednesday
20
November
2024

Regulation on instant payments: uncertainties remain

Read the article
Payment
/
Wednesday
25
September
2024

The Environmental Impact of Payment: Cards vs Cash

Read the article
Fraud
/
Thursday
19
September
2024

Tightening AML/CFT requirements in Europe: sanctions and new directives

Read the article
Regulatory
/
Thursday
12
September
2024

Regulation of payment and e-money services in Europe

Read the article
Innovation
/
Tuesday
3
September
2024

Compliance with IA Act and RGPD requirements in the use of artificial intelligence in the payments sector.

Read the article
Fraud
/
Thursday
22
August
2024

How can fraud be contained for use cases without strong authentication?

Read the article
Compliance
/
Wednesday
10
July
2024

Oaklen Consulting obtains Safety Assessor accreditation from EPI Company

Read the article
Compliance
/
Tuesday
14
May
2024

The start of 2024 heralds major changes in the regulatory landscape applicable to payment services

Read the article
Payment
/
Tuesday
19
March
2024

Regulators step up pressure on payment-related commissions

Read the article
Payment
/
Tuesday
5
March
2024

The European Central Bank sets its priorities for 2024

Read the article
Innovation
/
Monday
12
February
2024

Oaklen Consulting strengthens its strategic position in a fast-growing payment market

Read the article
Payment
/
Friday
2
February
2024

The card plays a central role in everyday spending

Read the article
Payment
/
Thursday
21
December
2023

Euro: Reinforcing legal tender and preparing the legal framework for a potential digital euro

Read the article
Fraud
/
Thursday
7
December
2023

The right combination to combat fraud effectively: User awareness and fair compensation

Read the article
Payment
/
Thursday
12
October
2023

Between consolidation and segmentation of offers, card acceptance/acquisition continues to undergo major changes

Read the article
Innovation
/
Thursday
14
September
2023

Technological innovations and payments feed off each other to create new uses

Read the article
Payment
/
Thursday
20
July
2023

PCI SSS aims to reduce Internet payment vulnerabilities

Read the article
Payment
/
Friday
5
May
2023

The diversity of payment habits in Europe demonstrates the need to adapt the fight against fraud to the local context

Read the article
Payment
/
Thursday
16
March
2023

Acceptance systems that evolve to meet consumer expectations

Read the article
Compliance
/
Monday
13
February
2023

Mobilize the entire company around the project of writing the annual internal control report

Read the article
Payment
/
Wednesday
25
January
2023

Instantaneous and universal are the keys to all retail payments: by bank transfer, cash or fractional payments

Read the article
Digital Payment
/
Thursday
5
January
2023

Crypto payments: why is there always so much "buzz word"?

Read the article
Buying journey
/
Tuesday
8
November
2022

Digital payment faces new challenges in a still growing e-commerce in Europe

Read the article
DSP2
/
Thursday
20
October
2022

The EBA's clarification of the concept of "limited network" foreshadows the orientations of the PSD3

Read the article
Payment
/
Friday
7
October
2022

Acceptance systems at the heart of new payment practices

Read the article
Innovation
/
Thursday
30
June
2022

PW Consultants becomes Oaklen Consulting. New name, new look, new expertise, but our mission remains the same.

Read the article
Payment
/
Thursday
30
January
2020

Digitalisation of currencies is emerging and 'traditional' payment methods are proving resilient

Read the article
Digital Identity
/
Thursday
13
February
2020

Digital identity: a topic of "interest" to both regulators and payment industry players

Read the article
Open Banking
/
Thursday
12
March
2020

Open Banking: a development that is going global

Read the article
Payment
/
Tuesday
24
March
2020

Instant payment is being rolled out on both sides of the Atlantic

Read the article
eCommerce
/
Thursday
2
April
2020

e-Commerce: Continued and increasingly international growth

Read the article
Innovation
/
Thursday
16
July
2020

Local or global, stablecoin wants to shape its future

Read the article
Digital Identity
/
Tuesday
28
July
2020

Digital Identity Implementation Guides

Read the article
Payment
/
Tuesday
29
September
2020

Divergent views on a possible revision of the 2015 Interchange Regulation

Read the article
Payment
/
Thursday
8
October
2020

Cross border: a new 'horizon' for payments

Read the article
Payment
/
Wednesday
28
October
2020

Payment business model issues exacerbated by COVID-19

Read the article
Open Banking
/
Thursday
3
December
2020

Open Banking: the UK shows a path to maturity

Read the article
Digital Payment
/
Tuesday
12
January
2021

Europe takes first steps towards a digital Euro

Read the article
Payment
/
Thursday
28
January
2021

Payments at the heart of Europe's Strategy for Digital Finance

Read the article
Fraud
/
Tuesday
23
February
2021

Points of vigilance on anti-money laundering, payment fraud and operational risks

Read the article
Open Banking
/
Thursday
18
March
2021

Open Banking & Payments: the "principles" are taking shape

Read the article
Payment
/
Tuesday
20
April
2021

Instant transfer structures the hybridisation of payments

Read the article
Innovation
/
Thursday
29
April
2021

Technology is opening up ever more opportunities for innovative financial services

Read the article
Payment
/
Tuesday
25
May
2021

Payment systems supervision steps up to take account of the hybridisation of payments in Europe

Read the article
Payment
/
Thursday
8
July
2021

Payment facilities: the authorities are paying close attention to the risk of overindebtedness

Read the article
Banks
/
Tuesday
12
October
2021

Between the fintech innovation race and the attachment to cash, the future of payments is still built on trust.

Read the article
Authentication
/
Monday
15
November
2021

Large-scale adoption of digital payments is conditional on "details" in the customer experience.

Read the article
Compliance
/
Wednesday
19
January
2022

Prepare your annual report on internal control for the year 2021

Read the article
Digital Identity
/
Thursday
16
April
2020

Launch of the first digital identity service in France

Read the article
Payment
/
Tuesday
28
April
2020

Insights into the evolution of payments

Read the article
Banks
/
Tuesday
12
May
2020

Interchange Regulation: a case for the status quo?

Read the article
Banks
/
Tuesday
10
May
2022

The impact of containment on cashless and cash payments

Read the article
Fraud
/
Monday
7
March
2022

User trust is the cornerstone of payments. It is becoming ever more complex.

Read the article
Banks
/
Friday
4
February
2022

The deployment of innovations to make payments more fluid remains highly dependent on domestic market dynamics

Read the article

A question? A project? Tell us all about it.

Because we can't wait to listen to you and help you innovate and emerge. Simply to accompany you. Leave us a message, we will answer you as soon as possible.
Contact us