Nothing is truly domestic anymore – at least, not in the financial sector, because markets are globally connected. This was the key takeaway from the session titled “Do central banks see the full picture? Aligning domestic ambitions with global ISO 20022 interoperability” at Sibos 2025.

“There is no market infrastructure any longer that is isolated. We are all interconnected,” says Paula Roels, head of Swift and Market Infrastructures at Deutsche Bank. “Sometimes, market infrastructures don’t even realise they have cross-border volume. Very often, I am told, ‘We don’t even have cross-border business.’ But just because the actual participation is local, does not mean that your local banks do not transport cross-border initiated payments.” She shared an example: “If there is a payment delivery from Siemens into your country, the last line is cross-border initiated.”

An overly local mindset might appear to be a move in solidarity at first but often proves to be detrimental later on. For market infrastructures that have fallen into this trap, Roels cautions, “You try to support your local community by facilitating a like-for-like approach, but then actually create friction on a global level.”

Less talk, more uptake

Her observation reflected a point made by Brian Steele in a previous session. In a panel titled “Why standards matter – a discussion with the ISSA board”, the managing director and president of Clearing and Securities Services at the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) said that standards are only as good as their adoption.

Angel Salazar, director of Payment Systems and Market Infrastructure Development and Innovation at the Central Bank of Mexico, shared that his definition of a successful implementation of ISO 20022 includes five key measures: disruption, inclusivity, operational resiliency, data management, and interoperability.

It should be implemented without disruption to end users, and be inclusive for all participants, big and small – “We need to create the channels for all to participate in this ecosystem”. Migration should be achieved without endangering operational resilience. Bringing new value to the ecosystem, particularly in enriching data, would be a plus. Finally, if interoperability is achieved, it would be an indication that the migration is doing well.

Local is global

Pointing out that ISO has a clear dictionary that is “very helpful”, Roels says, “If market infrastructures are circumventing the standard and asking the community to deliver certain information in a proprietary data element, it brings fragmentation. This is even worse if ISO is not implemented according to the scope of the ISO message.”

She gave an exmaple using pacs.004, the payment return message under ISO 20022: “If market infrastructures are in a like-for-like scenario, not implementing pacs-004, this requires the local community to reclassify a return into a new message, which breaks transparency. Even ignoring the fact that this is a technical effort, it breaks transparency, traceability, and actually jeopardises the reconciliation as well.”

Team effort

That said, Roels acknowledged that market infrastructures may be facing limitations. “Market infrastructures do not own regulation,” she says. “So they are challenged by having to deliver for local regulations and also serve interoperability.”

Nevertheless, she believes that ISO 20022 can be an enabler to deliver in both ways. The key is a mindset change, moving away from purely focusing on ticking boxes in a migration to collaborative execution. “Let’s work together collaboratively and make sure that all stakeholders are engaged in the journey… Let’s avoid the situation we have seen before, where local implementations are made without consultation with the global community. That creates friction by design.”

“We also need to acknowledge that ISO 20022 is different from empty messages. It is not static; it’s a living standard that enables innovation and evolution.”

Sibos 2025 plays out in Frankfurt from 29 September to 2 October, with about 12,000 registered delegates. We are there, overview our coverage here.