STANDARDS: ISO 20022
First step into a new future for payments ISO 20022 is the flag-bearer for efficient cross-border payments. Jessica O'Rourke of ACI Worldwide and Carmen Podgurschi of Wells Fargo discuss payment innovations and how the messaging standard will create a common language for banks and financial institutions
Payments have evolved rapidly on several fronts over the past decade. Digitalisation has been relentless, many innovative payment challengers have entered the field, and initiatives such as SWIFT gpi and the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) have set new industry frameworks. And now we have IS0 20022, which marks the next big step for the industry. The new standard, which is due for industry-wide rollout from November 2022, comes at a time when cross-border payments and e-commerce have been boosted by the impact of COVID-19 and customer expectations are increasingly driving service levels and the development of real-time payments. Wells Fargo has been part of the changing payments landscape for
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generations, and today has nearly $2trillion in assets, serving one in three US households. The bank’s Carmen Podgurschi has more than 10 years’ experience of working in treasury services, and says that cross-border payments are now at a watershed moment. “At Wells Fargo, it’s covering the full range of cross-border payments, from below $100 up to $2billion, and working with many new settlement types,” says Podgurschi. “Tremendous end-to-end changes are taking place.” And in the international arena that's mostly around transparency and interoperability, as the bank navigates a network of different payment rails – from, for example, an automated clearing house (ACH) to real-time settlement. For Jessica O'Rourke, a wholesale banking solution consultant with ACI
Worldwide, it’s precisely why new global standards are needed. “All the pressures arising from e-commerce, from customer expectations and digitalisation heighten the need for instant delivery, but also for transparency and interoperability,” she says. ACI research reveals that transactions surged by 41 per cent in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, accelerating the shift to digital payments. “As the pace of change increases, ISO 20022 will help to integrate all the different payment types,” says Podgurschi. “The new standard will improve processing, migration, backend infrastructures, APIs, the whole technology architecture. “We want customers to have the same experience with cross-border payments, in terms of transparency, cost and speed, as they have with domestic payments. “ISO 20022 will be a big help for payment www.fintechf.com
