Bank of England Steadily Progressing on Implementing New Payment Messaging Platform –  ISO 20022

  • Beginning in November 2022, the SWIFT community’s payment message exchange will be transformed by ISO 20022
  • Approximately 12,000 ISO 20022 messages have been exchanged between CHAPS Direct Participants over a two-month period
  • On January 31, 2022, CHAPS set a new value record of £542 billion, surpassing the previous daily record of £485 billion

Standards Advisory Panel (SAP) of Bank of England met on 1st September 2022.

SAP discussed the issues of industry readiness for  UK’s implementation of ISO 20022

ISO 20022 is an open global financial information standard. It offers consistent, rich, and structured data that can be used for any financial business transaction. Beginning in November 2022, the SWIFT community’s payment message exchange will be transformed by ISO 20022. This will open up enormous opportunities for financial institutions, such as increased operational efficiency, improved customer experience, and the creation of innovative new services.

The Bank of England provided the panel with an update on the implementation of ISO 20022 for CHAPS. On June 22, the Bank successfully launched the Pilot Platform.

CHAPS is a sterling same-day payment system used to settle high-value wholesale payments as well as time-sensitive, lower-value payments such as purchasing or paying a deposit related to property.

Approximately 12,000 ISO 20022 messages have been exchanged between CHAPS Direct Participants over a two-month period.

The Bank of England stated that most global market infrastructures do not intend to transition to a regular upgrade cycle until MT messages are phased out in November 2025. A traditional message type for use on the SWIFT network is an MT (message text). The message text standards were created to support SWIFT users’ business transactions.

 UK Finance (UKF) presented SAP with the overall work they are leading to combat fraud.

Data standardisation is the foundation for industry data sharing activities, such as fraud detection. However, other workstreams, such as enabling legislation, obtaining industry buy-in across sectors, and obtaining permissions to access the right data, were required to support this important work. UK Finance is working with the UK Government to prevent energy payment fraud.

The Bank of England has served the UK economy by providing RTGS and CHAPS services, which are high standard payment delivery service and has contributed in promoting the welfare of the people of the United Kingdom through monetary and financial stability.

RTGS is at the heart of all payments in the United Kingdom. On an average day, RTGS settles over £720 billion. On January 31, 2022, CHAPS set a new value record of £542 billion, surpassing the previous daily record of £485 billion. Following a brief decline during the Covid pandemic, CHAPS volumes have increased once more. Part of this increase was due to a surge in housing transactions caused by changes in Stamp Duty.

In response to property market demand, the Bank of England has extended the CHAPS settlement day by two hours on 30 June and 30 September 2021.

RTGS and CHAPS services will continue to play an important role in the domestic and international landscapes.

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