ISO 20022 – SWIFT

The ISO 20022 migration is the replacement of SWIFT related FIN Message Types (MT) for Cross Border payments by equivalent ISO 20022 messages. The scope is Category 1, 2 and 9 messages which are sent between Financial Institutions via the SWIFT network.

These ISO messages are highly structured - using the extensible markup language (XML) - which means that banks will literally be using a new language for payments related information exchange.

These ISO 20022 messages are commonly referred to as MX messages.

Since the first electronic messages were sent in 1977 using the MT standards, many changes and innovations were introduced to the MT-messaging system. Even though the MX-standard was introduced at the start of this century, the MT-standard remained predominant until ISO was considered to be mature enough, with the Key Payments specifications being published on SWIFT MyStandards in 2019.

All ISO/MX message versions to be used are those which have been published in 2019.

MX messages will replace the dated MT standards, as they offer the following benefits over MT messages amongst other reasons:

- Harmonization

- Enriched Experience

- Efficiency

- Compliance

According to SWIFT, the global migration to ISO 20022 is more than simply a regulatory compliance step. It's a strategic move by the whole community towards a more integrated, efficient, and customer-centric payments ecosystem.

Please read: 5 reasons why you should adopt ISO 20022 now | Swift

The migration for Cross Border Payments and Reporting plus, commonly referred to as CBPR+, started in March 2023 and will end November 2025, with a co-existence period of nearly 3 years during which both MT and MX messages will be exchanged between banks.

Migration is mandatory for all Financial Institutions with bank-to-bank connections: after November 2025 only MX messages are allowed for CBPR+.

Rabobank Wholesale - and Retail Clients who manage their Payments and Reporting via their own SWIFT connection can be divided into two groups:

1. Clients who are by SWIFT referred to as a Supervised Financial Institution: these clients also need to adhere to the migration deadline of November 2025

2. Clients who are by SWIFT referred to as a Corporate: these clients are allowed to continue using MT messages after November 2025. However, if you belong to this group you are encouraged to adopt the ISO standards to benefit from all the advantages of using these.

The same impact, as described for the second group, applies for Wholesale - and Retail Clients who use Rabo Direct Connect (RDC) and/or Rabo Business Banking (RBB) for their Payments and Reporting.

The following messages are in scope of ISO20022 migration at Rabobank:

Rabobank embraces innovation and regarding ISO messages encourages all parties involved to migrate to MX message-based information exchange. Even though the ISO migration is only mandatory for Supervised Financial Institutions, all parties should be able to benefit from the advantages of MX-based information exchange.

During Q3-2024 we will continue to work on a more detailed migration plan per processing flow.

In the meantime, the overview below will continuously be updated with message types and/or scheduling details.

*) Rabobank will adhere to the latest/up to date Usage Guidelines.

**) In the scenario of a rejected MT101 at the Executing Bank, the routing and processing of the incoming status report is currently non-STP and is taken care of manually by Rabobank's investigations team.

***) Our Cross Border Payment Engine is planned to natively process and send ISO messages as of Q3-2025. Until this migration all pacs - and related messages will be translated to MT format by using the SWIFT translator. More detailed information will be available at a later moment.

Rabobank will offer upon request access to www.swift.com/mystandards to all inquiring parties, for Rabo community access, CBPR+ related Usage Guidelines, scenario- and sample ISO messages, the Readiness portal for testing MX messages, and the online MT to MX translation service.