Pushing the introduction of new messaging standard ISO 20022 to 20 March, for cross-border payments and reporting (CBPR+), will be the last postponement, promise. This is the message from Swift, as the organisation aligns its plans with a recent four-monthts-delay announcement by the Eurosystem regarding its new real-time gross settlement system and its T2 “central liquidity management model”.

After the Eurosystem rescheduling from 21 November 2022 to 20 March 2023, announced here on 20 October, Swift made its corresponding announcement here a week later.

The March date will see the start of an ISO 20022/MT coexistence period, for all users.

“At the same time, it is clear from our community feedback that there is strong momentum across the industry to implement and gain value from ISO 20022 rich data, so the revised start date of 20 March 2023 will be definitive. Financial institutions are therefore encouraged to continue preparation for the 20 March start date and consider all potential scenarios in their planning to ensure readiness for the start of ISO 20022 coexistence for CBPR+ from that date,” urges SWIFT.

The ISO 20022 standard will be the basis for messaging also in the T2 (payments) system’s securities-settlement sibling, T2S (Target2-Securities).