On 17 October 2023, the Bank for International Settlement’s Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) published a report to the G20 on harmonised ISO 20022 data requirements for enhancing cross-border payments.

The increased adoption of ISO 20022 by payment systems around the world is a major opportunity to improve their interoperability. But this opportunity will not be realised if jurisdictions implement the international messaging standard for payments in inconsistent ways. The CPMI’s harmonised ISO 20022 data requirements address that risk and provide a common basis for use of the new messaging standard in cross-border payments.

The report presents the CPMI’s harmonised ISO 20022 data requirements for enhanced cross-border payments, developed in collaboration with the payments  industry. The CPMI’s harmonised ISO 20022 data requirements are presented as overarching data requirements that complement existing, more detailed market usage guidelines. They represent ISO 20022 data use practices that, from the perspectives of CPMI and payments industry messaging experts, are to be consistently applied in cross-border payments for the payment to be processed in the most efficient (i.e. straight through) manner.

The CPMI believes that its harmonisation requirements should take effect by end-2027, allowing for a two-year implementation period after the end of the SWIFT MT/ISO 20022 co-existence period, during which market participants will be recommended to align their messaging guidelines with the CPMI’s harmonisation requirements.

The CPMI will continue its engagement with payment system operators and financial institutions to foster the implementation of the harmonised data requirements by end-2027.