ION Treasury has successfully moved its Wallstreet Suite (WS) clients to ISO 20022. The move coincides with significant structural changes in the financial industry, driven by using ISO 20022-compliant messaging to modernize and standardize the processing of financial transactions.
The Eurosystem, via its T2/T2S Consolidation project, required TARGET2 EUR payments to switch to ISO 20022 in March 2023. SWIFT, via its Cross Border Payments and Reporting (CBPR+) initiative, is also moving to ISO 20022 over a 3-year coexistence period. As a result, interbank legacy SWIFT message type (MT) payments and bank statements will be retired in November 2025.
These changes parallel initiatives elsewhere to upgrade legacy payment systems to ISO 20022, including RITS in Australia and FEDWIRE in the US. New payment systems, such as P27 in Scandinavia, are also adopting ISO 20022. The changes are expected to yield several benefits, from improved customer experience through greater transparency to faster straight-through-processing and improved financial compliance.
The current changes to standardization follow decisions by central banks and SWIFT as they fully adopt ISO 20022. ION Treasury has regularly met with central banks and SWIFT to discuss the strategy, and prepare for these challenging initiatives. These meetings were foundational to developing a solution that allows central banks and other financial institutions to comply with the new standards, and ensure the availability of TARGET2 and CBPR+ libraries.
As a result of ION’s implementation, its WS clients now generate ISO 20022-format payments (instead of SWIFT MT formats), and receive status updates, bank notifications, and statements in ISO 20022 formats. WS is an enterprise treasury and risk management solution for the largest and most complex organizations, with multi-entity support, real-time information across all asset classes, and advanced analytics for decision-making and performance measurement.
Michael Kolman, chief product officer at ION Treasury, said in a statement: “Much more than a messaging project, the ISO 20022 migration will provide opportunities to streamline processes, and maintain improved, more rich data. It has the potential to influence booking systems, sanctions, Know-Your-Customer, liquidity management, and statement reconciliation.”
“Given the implementation end date of November 2025, the CBPR+ switch will be gradual. Our goal was to prepare clients as far in advance as possible,” Kolman continued. “These major changes will impact financial institutions for years to come, pushing corporations to become CGI ISO 20022 compliant.”