As you are likely aware, the imminent migration to the new ISO 20022 standard will have a far–reaching impact on the payments world, as it promotes unification of existing and entrenched standards across many existing financial role players.
Are You Ready for the New ISO 20022 Standard?
Pressure to conform will in part be carrot; more efficient solutions, and in part stick; regulatory deadlines:
- Regulatory pressures: From November 2022, the SWIFT network will not permit any new projects using the older MT standard, with support provided to existing solutions for a limited period. From November 2025, SWIFT will not permit any solutions running the older MT standard. This means all current MT solutions must be migrated to ISO 20022 by no later than November 2025 to account for the required industry testing.
- More efficient solutions: Increase straight-through-processing in domestic and cross-border payments through improved quality and richness of data, less intervention in payment processes due to structured and meaningful data, and the ability to innovate using a universal standard.
This strategic change will not only have an impact on the existing systems, but also on the employees of the financial institutions and by inference, their customers. Here is where the biggest risks lie; if the ISO 20022 migration is not treated as a transformational full-scale payment modernisation project, customers might be negatively impactedwith a real loss of income as a result.
Sybrin firmly believes that irrespective of your implementation approach, you need to follow a holistic and practical plan. Even if you take small tactical steps, it must be in the direction of your overall holistic plan.
Therefore, Sybrin suggests an ISO 20022 transformation plan consisting of the following steps:
Analysis of the existing ‘as-is’ payment landscape
An in–depth analysis must be performed on the existing payment processes/messages, the systems involved, and the data structures used for these payments.
Design of the ideal ‘to-be’ payments landscape
The ideal ISO 20022 payments landscape must be envisioned – while using reference industry payment processes and data models, a ‘to-be’ landscape should be documented.
Implementation Plans
Using the as-is analysis as well as the design of the ideal to-be landscape as input, the following plans need to be documented:
- A System Consolidation Plan
- A Payment Process Transformation Plan
- A People Change Management Plan
- A Plan to establish a Payment Centre of Excellence
Sybrin Can Assist in Your ISO 20022 Journey
Payment Experience is in Our DNA
Sybrin was established in 1991 and has three decades of extensive experience in implementing payment solutions, the statistics speak for themselves:
20+ Countries worldwide.
1000+ Completed payment projects.
100+ satisfied customers, with a 99% retention rate.
15000+ users.
150+ reusable solutions.
150 million+ payments processed per month on our solutions.
Local offices in numerous African countries.
More specific to ISO 20022:
Sybrin has successfully completed ISO2002 migrations for central banks, impacting the ISO2002 direction of those countries on a macro level.
Sybrin is in the process of migrating various banks to ISO 20022, we have used our technology and experience of large-scale projects to support their initiatives.
Sybrin’s ISO 20022 project successes are largely due to a well-defined holistic plan and implementing according to a combination of the following:
- Tactical, ‘quick and simple’ approach where SWIFT MT messages are translated to SWIFT MX (ISO 20022) using libraries offered by the Sybrin Payments Hub.
-
- An incoming pacs.008 (ISO 20022 message) is translated by the Sybrin Payments Hub to an MT103 message (current/old SWIFT standard), and then sent to the existing SWIFT system in the bank.
- The existing SWIFT system responds with an outgoing MT103, which is translated by the Sybrin Payments Hub to pacs.008 (ISO 20022) and sent to the outside world for processing.
-
This approach addresses the conversion to ISO 20022 messaging in the simplest manner.
- Complete replacement/rebuild where systems are replaced with ISO 20022 compliant systems. This approach is technically the most robust, secure, and complete, but also unfortunately the most challenging to deliver in time. What makes this approach even more stressful, is the impact the change has on its people. Typically, these projects span multiple years, using multiple teams with sizeable budgets.
- Hybrid approach: Financial institutions have realised that a ‘rip and replace’ approach is rarely feasible due to budget constraints and the immense human change impact. In most cases, a hybrid approach is required that combines the best of the tactical- and complete replacement approach. In this approach, our Payments Hub will not only do the simple translation as previously mentioned, but also enrich the payment data and keep that data available in the ISO 20022 format for the duration of the payment. This allows existing systems to use the data richness of ISO 20022 with minimal change.
Modern and Industry–Compliant Technology
- This product was built from the ground up on ISO 20022 data structures, processes/messages, and principles, allowing for quick customer implementation of ISO 20022-related items.
- Off-the-shelf collection of ISO 20022 applications and processes covering areas like SWIFT MT/MX conversion, message validation, data structures, liquidity management, account validation, etc.
- All off-the-shelf payment solutions can be customised to an exact customer fit, using Sybrin Platform. In addition, customers can build their own solutions using the platform.
- FI’s can perform a process mapping exercise to identify duplicate, inefficient, or redundant processes as per the as-is process analysis phase.
- The ISO 20022 standard is ideally suited in support of the ever-changing face of payment products. Payments Hub allows quick product and message structure changes using our low code platform. This allows a FI to define ISO 20022 compliant products for alternative payment initiatives like social, crypto payments, biometric payments etc. For example, it would be possible to add a digital fingerprint image to a biometric payment message.
- SWIFT MT
Using self-developed and third-party libraries, our Payments Hub enables parsing, building, and validating all SWIFT MT messages; MT1XX, MT2XX, MT3XX, MT4XX, MT5XX, MT6XX, MT7XX, MT8XX, and MT9XX. This satisfies the SWIFT criteria for network validation, rule validation, market validation, and more.
- SWIFT MT/MX translation
Using industry accepted libraries, the Sybrin Payments Hub enables migration of your payment system to ISO 20022 Cross-Border Payments and Reporting (CBPR+) without the pain and cost of changing your core banking. The SWIFT MT ISO 20022 Translator library will map, validate, and translate MT101, MT103, MT103STP, MT103 return, MT200, MT202, MT202 return, MT202COV, MT900, MT910, MT940, MT941, MT942, MT950, pacs.004, pacs.008, pain.001, pain.009, camt.052, camt.053, and camt.054.
- SWIFT ISO 20022
Using industry accepted libraries, Payments Hub enables parsing, building, and validating all SWIFT ISO 20022 (ΜΧ) messages; acmt, auth, camt, colr, pacs, pain, reda, seev, semt, sese and setr. The library exposes well-defined validation messages that can be forwarded to your online application. This enables rapid implementation of ISO 20022 payment processes.
- Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA)
This industry accepted library supports all SEPA CT, SEPA DD, and SEPA instant messages, allowing the Our Payments Hub to utilise ready-to-use methods for all R transactions; reverse, recall, cancel, and return messages.
