SWIFT delays ISO 20022 cross-border payments migration

SWIFT’s ISO 20022 migration which was originally set to launch by November 2021 has been deferred by 12 months to the end of 2022. The delay was made due to the feedback given by the SWIFT community, according to a press release. Now institutions, banks and companies have an extra year to work around their trouble with decommissioning and preparing their infrastructure. The deadline for decommissioning Swift MT standard remains in place as 2025.

The move will help banks to adopt ISO 20022 at their own pace and reduce the total industry cost. The work which is already undertaken under ISO 20022 such as data remediation, channel improvements and back-office processing is not wasted and will still be required under the new strategy. The clients will still be able to continue to send and receive MT categories 1, 2 and 9 for cross-border payments and cash reporting after November 2021.

From the end of 2022 institutions will have the option to send and receive MT or ISO 20022. ISO 20022 users will also have the choice of the InterAct FINplus messaging service or APIs.