Bank of England welcomes release of BIS CPMI harmonised ISO 20022 data requirements for cross-border payments

News release

The Bank of England welcomes the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Committee on Payment and Market Infrastructures’ (CPMI) publication today of harmonised ISO 20022 data requirements for cross-border payments (“CPMI ISO 20022 data requirements”).

The ISO 20022 global payments messaging standard is being adopted by payment systems around the world, including CHAPS which transitioned in June 2023. The Bank believes that global adoption of the CPMI ISO 20022 data requirements will help to reduce inefficiencies which arise along the cross-border payment chain due to misaligned message flows and inconsistent data usage. The internationally consistent implementation of the CPMI ISO 20022 data requirements will help to lead to the enhancement of cross-border payment messages through, for example, increased straight-through-processing. This will help the G20 achieve its cost, speed and transparency targets for cross-border payments.

In light of these benefits, the Bank of England intends to align the CHAPS ISO 20022 message usage guidelines with the CPMI ISO 20022 data requirements by end-2025, ahead of the end-2027 timeline for global adoption set out in the CPMI report. The Bank encourages other market infrastructures and payment service providers participating in cross-border payments to also align their ISO 20022 message usage guidelines with the CPMI ISO 20022 data requirements to realise the full benefits of harmonisation for end users around the world.

Notes to editors

1. The publication is available on the BIS website
2. The publication stems from the actions identified in the Financial Stability Board’s Roadmap for Enhancing Cross Border Payments, published in October 2020
3. G20 Leaders endorsed a set of global quantitative targets for addressing the challenges of cost, speed, transparency and access faced by cross-border payments.
4. CHAPS migrated to the ISO 20022 data standard on 19 June 2023, as part of the Bank’s renewal programme for its Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) infrastructure. The ISO 20022 message standard facilitates the sending of enhanced data in a richer, more structured format than the previous ‘MT’ message standard. In addition to the UK, many major jurisdictions are also implementing ISO 20022 ahead of November 2025, when SWIFT is scheduled to retire its MT message standard for interbank payments.
5. The current CHAPS ISO 20022 message usage guidelines already support the vast majority of the data requirements set out in the publication. Some small modifications will be made by end-2025 to ensure full compatibility, as part of a regular process for updating message guidelines.