What do you know about ISO 20022? With the payments eco-system everchanging against a backdrop of uncertainty, the emerging global standard is designed to simplify business communication on an international scale – ensuring the smooth development of payment messages through a common platform of methodology.
While making the transition may have been de-prioritised by financial institutions due to a SWIFT timeline delay, the deadline of 2025 looms closer – with ISO 20022 set to support 87% of all transaction value on a global scale by 2023. But why the immediate rush?
Ultimately, banks who fail to initiate moving to the data-rich messaging standards of ISO 20022 sooner rather than later risk further setbacks down the line – and thus missing the final cut-off date as a result.
With the migration itself a new process for all parties involved, the journey to becoming ISO-complaint may take longer than expected. So much so that for some banks, the various phases of migration could take several years to carry out. Therefore, institutions rushing to modernise by meeting these standards all at once could face being excluded from international payment systems; worse still, losing their customers altogether.
Although a mandatory requirement for financial institutions by November 2025, the ISO 20022 deadline arrives at the right time. As FinTech firms enter a new era of global banking, ISO 20022 drives faster quality payments translated from high-quality data. Designed to adapt to the changing landscape, the open standard of ISO 20022 also means anyone within the industry may employ it across any network at any time.
Key benefits also include:
With much change yet to pass in the coming years, 2025 may seem a long while off. Yet the institutions able to act now stand a greater chance of making the transition on time – before their existing products and services become obsolete. Compared to legacy formats, bank systems will need to process larger data volumes at higher speeds to allow for the real-time payments, daily liquidity management, and compliance checks of the modern world; and not forgetting sophisticated fraud detection and prevention.
In an ideal world, testing should begin to take place from 2022 onwards – from ensuring the syntax and formatting information is accurate, to data within associated payment and clearing systems being mapped correctly. When considering the complexities of ISO 20022 combined with the task of integrating new industry standards, businesses may of course face further challenges. Whether that involves updating or replacing outdated legacy systems that can’t support ISO 20022, to the colossal expansion of data putting pressure on infrastructures to manage additional information.
For businesses embarking on this new journey, solutions such as the Electronic Bank Payments SuiteApp (formerly NetSuite Electronic Payments) can streamline the process by bringing real-time visibility to the payments eco-system from a single version of truth. It also allows you to process bank payments of your vendor bills, employee expenses, partner and employee commissions, customer refunds, and more.
Payment files generated via the platform also contain rich data facilitating electronic fund transfers between bank accounts, from transaction codes and amounts, to bank identification numbers and account names of the remitter and payee. With the standard format determined by the banking industry of the country where the payment file is used, Electronic Bank Payment files can be imported to a bank’s payment software or submitted electronically for processing.
The introduction of new international payments standards is bound to put pressure on FinTechs. Yet turning information into intelligence via Electronic Bank Payments with your existing Oracle NetSuite solution can help to ensure the safe and seamless operation of payments as ISO 20022 migration awaits financial institutions across the globe.
Intrigued by the possible efficiency savings of integrating Salesforce with NetSuite? Read our guide to find out what integration involves & the benefits it can bring for your business.
If your business is using Xero and you're are wondering if it’s time to streamline your financial management and implement NetSuite, read this post! We cover the advantages and disadvantages of swapping to NetSuite or sticking with Xero.
For our latest webinar, we’ve teamed up with Abacum to showcase how finance teams are moving from historical reporters to strategic advisors using an AI-native FP&A platform built for 2026.
If you’re considering improving your business operations by implementing NetSuite, you could benefit from being supported by a NetSuite partner. Here are 7 reasons why...
In this post, we'll explore some of the signs that it's time for your business to make the move to NetSuite, as well as what improvements you can expect to see. We'll also cover how to make sure the process is as smooth as possible once it begins.
In case you missed it, our recent webinar covered what a great NetSuite integration looks like. Here, we recap what was covered and show you how to determine the good from the bad!
