What is ISO 20022?
ISO 20022 is an international standard for financial messaging — a common language that banks and payment systems use to communicate transaction information. It carries richer data than older messaging formats (such as SWIFT MT), including more detailed information about the purpose of a payment, the parties involved, and compliance data. In the UK, CHAPS migrated to ISO 20022 in 2023, and SWIFT’s global migration is underway.
Why is ISO 20022 important for UK banks and payments?
ISO 20022 enables significantly more data to travel alongside a payment — improving fraud detection, compliance screening, and reconciliation. For businesses, richer payment data reduces manual invoice matching and improves straight-through processing. For regulators, better data supports financial crime prevention. The Bank of England has mandated ISO 20022 for CHAPS, and Swift is completing its global migration, making the standard universal for high-value international payments.
How does ISO 20022 relate to open banking?
Open banking and ISO 20022 are complementary infrastructure improvements to the UK’s payment system. Open banking uses APIs to initiate and access payment data; ISO 20022 standardises the data format within the payment messages themselves. Together, they represent a modernisation of UK financial infrastructure. Richer ISO 20022 data can enhance the quality of open banking transaction categorisation and affordability assessments for fintechs building on top of payment data.
Open Banking in Practice: The Bank of England completed the CHAPS ISO 20022 migration in June 2023, making it one of the first central bank payment systems to adopt the standard. Pay.UK is planning the migration of Faster Payments (the backbone of open banking payments) to ISO 20022 in a future phase. This will significantly improve data quality across the entire UK retail payment ecosystem. Read our guide to UK payment infrastructure on openfuture.world.
FAQ
Does ISO 20022 affect my everyday banking?
Not directly in the short term — the benefits are primarily felt by banks, payment processors, and businesses in reconciliation and compliance; consumer-facing improvements will follow.
What is the difference between ISO 20022 and SWIFT?
SWIFT is the global messaging network that connects banks; ISO 20022 is the message standard (format) used to communicate on that network and other payment systems.
When will Faster Payments migrate to ISO 20022?
Pay.UK has announced plans to migrate Faster Payments to ISO 20022; a specific completion date is subject to the programme timeline — check Pay.UK’s website for updates.