The list: Resources for tracking global milestones, mandates and timelines

We’ve been detailing various mandates, timelines, milestones and deadlines in the payments business over the past week, reinforcing that this year is arguably the most active on the regulatory and market-making front since the 2008 financial crisis. In order to stay on top of all this change going forward, you may need resources at your fingertips. Our goal with this resource guide is to provide reliable sources to serve you and your team well as they navigate change. 

SWIFT

As promised earlier in the week, we will start with the various deadlines and timelines associated with SWIFT. The cross-border payment platform has followed an active 2022 with more changes to its Relationship Management Portal and Transaction Management Platform. In addition, SWIFT is always looking toward its vision of the future in which the public cloud is the norm and SWIFT gpi is connected to all major domestic real-time payment infrastructures. 

First is the Relationship Management Portal, which enables financial institutions “to define which counterparties can send them FIN messages and blocks unwanted message traffic at the sender, providing a safeguard against fraudulent transactions.” It will be replaced by the end of 2023, and all relationship management applications (RMA) will be managed on an organizational level instead of a service level. SWIFT has some excellent resources on RMAs, but several require SWIFT credentials. For more on the RMA changes we recommend this excellent guide from J.P. Morgan. It was initially designed to be a FAQ on ISO 20022 deadlines, which passed in late March. However, it is a clear, concise explanation of RMA changes. 

While it isn’t mandated, financial institutions looking to use some of the newer SWIFT products like SWIFT Go, Stop and Recall and Bank Account Verification will need to transition to SWIFT Alliance via the cloud-based Transaction Management Platform. SWIFT has an ungated “platform evolution” page with a video explaining coming changes and a rich set of resources for further reading. 

SWIFT is a dynamic organization that has not only enabled the management of the ISO 20022 but is active in the world of securities settlement and has ambitious plans for global real-time payments. What are its future plans? The organization lays them out in this late February piece from The Banker.

ISO 20022

The big UK deadline of March 22 has passed. But the beat goes on as the financial world becomes familiar with the messaging standard and the data it provides. Citibank’s recent report, The Importance of Data Structure: ISO 20022 and the Future of Payments, is well worth reading for anyone who wants a glimpse at ISO’s future. 

EU Instant Payments Proposals 

The EU finance committee is preparing to officially consider sweeping changes to its instant payments regulations that could go into effect as soon as April 2024. These changes will make affordable Euro payments universally available, mandate verification between the source identification and the payee, and cross-check interactions with sanctions screening lists. For an official read, check out the proposal’s EU Parliament page. For analysis, we recommend EY.com’s take on the next steps. 

FedNow Launch

All eyes in the US are on the July launch of the FedNow service, which will extend “faster payments” to more banks and include more use cases. There’s a slew of great information on the Federal Reserve site. We also recommend this PYMNTS interview with Dan Baum head of payments product for FedNow. He is among the participants in this panel discussion and said the stars are aligning to move money faster, appealing to a wide swath of users.

New Payments Architecture (NPA)

What will this initiative change in the UK? The answer is “everything.” As the UK’s Payments Systems Regulator puts it, it is: “the UK payments industry’s proposed new way of organizing the clearing and settlement of payments made from one payment account to another, known as interbank payments.” The PSR gets our nod for the best and most frequently updated resource around the NPA as it navigates toward testing and then complete integration. If you prefer listening to a podcast update, industry expert Michael Chambers from Northey Point shares his view on this payment migration.

Open Banking

If you want to read about the progress Open Banking has made in the UK, check out Open Banking Limited, the entity set up by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in 2016 to deliver open banking. It reports to nine UK banks and works with fintechs as well as advocacy groups. The UK’s roll out of open banking gets most of the headlines. But other countries have made headway, as you can see in this Ping Identity report. And while the US has not mandated open banking, the Consumer Financial Protection Board has released a proposal for guideline input, which is analyzed here by JD Supra.

Confirmation of Payee

The name-checking service that has made a dent in payments fraud in the UK is focused on an upcoming deadline, October 31 2023, that mandates CoP usage by a group of 32 institutions mixed among large banks (e.g., Citi), building societies (e.g., Yorkshire) and fintechs (e.g., Revolut). Group 2, primarily the balance of banks and PSPs, will come online October 31, 2024. For backgrounders and news updates, Pay.UK has the most complete package. 

Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill

This is a significant piece of legislation that could be a game-changer in holding corporates as well as banks accountable for constructing effective fraud prevention. It has ramifications for adopting solutions like Confirmation of Payee for corporates. For updates on the bill and a complete text of its details check out this UK Parliament page.