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Federal Reserve Financial Services (FRFS) has announced a revised timeline for the transition to the ISO 20022 message format for the Fedwire Funds Service. Originally scheduled for 10 March 2025, the implementation has been postponed to 14 July 2025, to allow additional time for industry participants to prepare. According to FRFS, the decision to delay was made after evaluating customer readiness and responding to industry requests. While progress has been made, the extension is intended to accommodate those who require more time to complete necessary adjustments. https://www.frbservices.org/news/communications/021325-fedwire-iso20022-implementation-rescheduled-July-14

The country's entire banking community has switched to offering instant payments using the Clearing and Settlement Mechanism of the central bank. "After this successful switch, all interbank payments in Aruban florin initiated in Aruba can be instantly processed 24/7/365. The IP CSM is fully compliant with international standards and ISO20022."

The BIS Innovation Hub and SWIFT announced the three winners of the ISO 20022 hackathon, which invited teams to build and showcase solutions that enhance cross-border payments, using the ISO 20022 standard for payments messages and application programming interfaces (APIs).

"The Federal Reserve has released message specifications for the initial launch of its FedNow Service for instant payments based on the standard set by the International Organization for Standardization, or ISO. The FedNow ISO 20022 specifications define the message flows and formats that the service will leverage when operational in 2023."

The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), an international body which sets global and commercial standards worldwide, has defined various standards for facilitating the flow of messages related to payments/financial transactions. Over the last decade, ISO 20022 has emerged as the key global standard for developing modernised financial market infrastructures. At present, most payment systems follow the ISO 20022 standards, resulting in improved efficiency, lower costs and the avoidance of errors. ISO 20022 is fast emerging as a global benchmark for successful, real-time, high and low-value payments across domestic, regional and international flows of financial transactions.

Over the next ten years, the standards for communicating electronic payments instructions between financial institutions, will transition from the various proprietary messaging standards over to ISO 20022. The U.S. Fedwire will start transitioning to ISO 20022 over a three-year period beginning in 2022. The European Central Bank's large value system, Target2, will start its transition in November 2022. The UK will switch in April 2022 in conjunction with a new real-time gross settlement system. The SWIFT global messaging network intends to begin the switch to ISO 20022 near the end of 2022. ISO 20022 will become a global lingua franca for transferring value electronically.

"The Federal Reserve Board announced that the Federal Reserve Banks will adopt the ISO® 20022 message format for the Fedwire Funds Service. The change will allow for enhanced efficiency of both domestic and cross-border payments, and a richer set of payment data that may help banks and other entities comply with sanctions and anti-money laundering requirements."

Since August 2022, all required ISO 2022 cross-border payments and reporting (CBPR+) capabilities have been deployed and institutions have been able to exchange messages on an opt-in basis.  However, in October the ECB decided to delay the Eurosystem ISO 20022 migration from November 21, 2022 to March 20, 2023, to ensure greater system stability and user readiness, as well as smooth transition to new platform. Hence, an overwhelming majority of SWIFT's global community requested that SWIFT align the start of the global ISO 20022 migration for CBPR+ with the ECB's updated timetable to ease implementation.

SWIFT has published a comprehensive guide to the ISO 20022 messaging standard, outlining everything from the very basics, to why it matters, its impact and the benefits it offers.

The Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) published an article that provides an update on a workstream of the G20 cross-border payments program focused on the harmonization of ISO 20022 for enhancing cross-border payments. Most of the world's payment systems will adopt ISO 20022 by 2025, when SWIFT will discontinue its support of the current MT (message type/text) standard for cross-border payments. Hence the coming years will be crucial for converging on a harmonized use of the messaging standard to fully leverage its potential to make cross-border payments faster, cheaper and more transparent.

"The achievement of policy aims associated with a CBDC will require adoption by end users. The user value proposition relies in large part on frictionless satisfaction of key payments use cases. The associated CBDC transactions necessitate interoperability along - and most crucially between - payment rails. Harmonization of data models, via international standardization efforts, is a necessary underpinning of effective interoperability."

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) published harmonized ISO 20022 data requirements that establish a consistent minimum set of messaging standards for more efficient processing of cross-border payments. They will facilitate the straight through processing of end-to-end payments, making them faster and more reliable.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub London Centre and the Bank of England launched Project Keystone that aims to develop a standardized data analytics platform focused on ISO 20022 data. The increased use of ISO 20022 standards for payment messages in real time gross settlement (RTGS) systems means many central banks will adopt the protocol in the coming years. Ninety-three percent of payment system operators have already either implemented ISO 20022 or are working to implement it in their systems.

"Over the next 10 years, a big bang will be unfolding in central bank land. ISO 20022, a new standard for communicating electronic payments instructions between financial institutions, will be taking over. This, combined with the emergence of real-time central bank retail payment systems, means that payments in 2030 are going to be much better than in 2020."

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) announced further steps to promote the adoption of its harmonized ISO 20022 data requirements for more efficient processing of cross-border payments. A panel of global ISO 20022 market practice groups will be established in early 2025 to support the regular maintenance of the data requirements. Second, the CPMI is encouraging industry to develop global ISO 20022 market practice guidelines for fast payments based on the harmonized data requirements. Third, the CPMI will continue to engage with payment system operators and payment service providers to encourage them to implement the harmonized data requirements by end-2027.

In the rapidly evolving world of digital currencies, ISO 20022 emerges as a critical framework that could revolutionize how CBDCs communicate, ensuring seamless interoperability, robust security, and efficient cross-border transactions. By providing a flexible, standardized approach to financial messaging, ISO 20022 holds the potential to transform the global financial landscape, making digital currency exchanges as smooth as sending an email (but with monetary value attached).