ISO 20022 for Payments

Overview

ISO^® 20022 is a standards framework that defines the message structure and content to enable a common global “language” for messaging in payments, cash management reporting, securities, cards, foreign exchange and trade services. The ISO 20022 standard is rapidly becoming the global standard for payments, and is being adopted by payment systems in the U.S.

For businesses, ISO 20022 has messages for payments, cash management and remittance information. This standard promises to deliver great benefits to businesses, including operational efficiencies, improvements to treasury management and customer experience, and improved global interoperability. Corporates can benefit from ISO 20022 as a means to simplify and standardize their treasury and payment operations.

Recent Updates

X9 Publishes ISO^® 20022 Remittance Content Market Practices Guide

The Accredited Standards Organization X9 (Off-site), is looking to catalyze ISO 20022 common message and data usage in the U.S. market through their ISO 20022 Market Practice Forum.

In early 2022, the Forum published the ISO 20022 Remittance Content Market Guide (Off-site) to provide guidance on the content of remittance information for B2B payments to encourage payers and payees to use consistent data regardless of the payment type. The guidance includes detailed information and real-world examples to assist with the implementation of ISO 20022 and simplify integration into accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR) systems. The ultimate goal of the guide is to provide information to AP and AR software vendors, service providers, and businesses for the design of products and services that send and receive remittance information to promote straight-through processing of remittance data in the U.S. Learn more in a recent blog article, “New Guide Provides Clarity on Use of ISO 20022 Remittance Information (Off-site)”

Resources

• Webinar: Structured Remittance Data: Opportunities and Challenge (Off-site) (2020)
  In this joint webinar with 20022 Labs and the BPC, a panel of expert practitioners discuss how their organizations are leveraging ISO 20022 and structured remittance data. They also share key lessons they’ve learned through adoption.
• Webinar: ISO 20022 Business Drivers (Off-site) (2020)
  In this joint webinar with 20022 Labs and the BPC, the use-cases and business drivers for ISO 20022 is discussed, along with how one’s company can benefit from using ISO 20022, and what actions businesses should be taking to prepare for tighter integration of business and payments processes.
• Understanding ISO 20022 Resource Guide (PDF) (2017)
  This guide is a compilation of existing resources that provide information on the ISO 20022 standard, including tools that help with transitioning to the new standard such as mapping and implementation.
• Adoption of ISO 20022 (PDF) (2017)
  This white paper, which is a companion document to the Understanding ISO 20022 Resource Guide, provides evidence of U.S. adoption of ISO 20022 for corporate to bank payment operations.

Additional Resources