SWIFT announces the availability of its new In-flow Translation service and confirms that the ISO 20022 sandbox for international payments is complete and available to customers. In-flow Translation will enable financial institutions to take advantage of enriched data when migrating to ISO 20022, even if their peers have not yet adopted the standard. The availability of a test environment means that customers can start preparing for ISO 20022 already, up to a year before it goes live.
The new service translates enriched ISO 20022 messages into the existing MT format for banks that are not ready to process ISO 20022 messages out-of-the-box, and ensures delivery of both message formats so customers have complete data at all times . This ensures that all financial institutions on the SWIFT network can continue to transact as normal during the industry migration, which begins in November 2022 and runs through November 2025.
SWIFT has made the In-flow Translation service available to banks so that they can be tested in advance, become familiar with ISO 20022 and gain experience in the new operating environment. Early adopters of the service will be able to start using it from August 2022, with a voluntary subscription only. All banks will automatically enroll in the service in November 2022, coinciding with the mandatory start of cross-border migration and the entry into force of the ISO 20022 standard for high-value payments in the euro zone.
“One of the guiding principles of our strategy for instant and frictionless payments is to ensure that no one is left behind and that entities can migrate in the way that is most convenient for them and their customers,” said Stephen Lindsay, Head of Business at the SWIFT platform. “With the launch of In-flow Translation and the completion of the customer testing environment for ISO 20022, we are delivering on our commitment and ensuring that our community has ample time to prepare for the new standard. The move to ISO 20022 is a A key element of our strategy, which will bring significant business benefits to banks, In-flow Translation will be vital to making the transition as seamless as possible, as it will support interoperability between message types.”
By enabling richer and better-structured data to be sent in payment messages, ISO 20022 will provide a better end-user experience and is a key element on which the future of the financial industry will be built.
Leveraging its unique global network of more than 11,000 financial institutions and 4 billion accounts in 200 countries, SWIFT is taking steps to minimize disruption and ensure its community is ready for the start of migration, including those banks that they will not initially adopt ISO 20022 in the back-office. Completion of the sandbox, including the In-flow Translation service, means banks will have a full year to familiarize themselves with the upcoming mandatory changes.
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