As the November 2025 transition deadline fast approaches, one of the topics that took center stage at this year’s Sibos event was ISO 20022. While the focus remains on what will happen at the end of the transition period, the pioneers and early adopters of ISO 20022 are already reaping huge benefits. Let’s dive into the advantages which were highlighted at the event and the impact that the standard will have on the ecosystem in 2025.
The new value of money.
ISO 20022’s reach data allows financial institutions to better understand customer behavior and needs. Financial institutions and payment schemes need to carefully analyze which use cases they need to implement based on day-to-day payment data. The new value of a payment will depend on how financial institutions are able to interpret their clients’ unique requirements.
The evolution of payments will continue to be influenced by customer expectations, and more specifically, how they perceive value. For now, customers expect speed, transparency and traceability - all of which must be delivered without compromising security and trust.
Collaboration.
Sibos is the annual conference that brings together the global financial community and industry leaders, serving as a platform to discuss how partnerships can overcome challenges. This create opportunities for a more inclusive digital economy.
Looking back at past decades, payments were largely dominated by banks. Today, new players like Fintechs and payment service providers (PSPs) are offering alternative payment solutions.
The relationship between incumbent banks and Fintechs has radically changed since the introduction of open banking regulations and ISO 20022. What was once a “supplier relationship” has transformed into one of active collaboration.
This new business model is reshaping the sector, with a focus on how interoperability can elevate the global payment experience for end users. ISO 20022 is a key enabler of interoperability, providing a native coding system that is understandable worldwide.
The “always-on” era.
Our increasingly connected world is transforming payments. Whether for work, socializing, learning or entertainment, people are spending more time online. Consequently, real-time retail digital wallets are now transitioning to wholesale applications. While wholesale clients may not use digital wallets to authorize payments, we will see a stronger focus on real-time use cases and transparent and predictable cash flow management.
Let’s take Swift GPI as an example. Its ability to track any international payments via the Unique Transaction Reference (UTR) references has reduced transaction fees and sped up cross-border transactions. This service is now easily accessible to wholesale clients via their internet banking platform.
So, what does this mean? Thanks to a unique transaction identifier on the XML Metadata Interchange (XMl) message, clients can see in real-time where a payment is in the chain and predict when it will reach the beneficiary. The benefits of this include reducing the requirements for payment investigation by treasury teams and optimizing transaction speed.
The benefits of ISO 20022.
While payment modernization often focuses on speed, another element that is high on the agenda of financial institutions is the automation of reconciliation.
ISO 20022 promises to reduce payment friction by addressing issues such as data truncation, a lack of structured data, and insufficient information. The current processes are often manual, time-consuming, and costly.
One key benefit of ISO 20022 is the inclusion of rich, structured data within payment messages. For instance, it introduces the ‘camt.053 message’ - an end-of-day bank statement capturing almost 1,600 fields of information. Similarly, the ‘camt.052 intraday statement’ offers the possibility of intraday reporting – an attractive opportunity for a quicker and more automated bank statement reconciliation process.
ISO 20022 XML migration supports up to 9,000 characters within the structured payment remittance information block. For instant payments via pacs.001, the camt.054 message will enable real-time reconciliation with structured data.
ISO and AI: a match made in heaven.
Since the SEPA migration to ISO 20022, the superpowers of this standard have become clear: structured data overpopulation, and most importantly, the ability to leverage common data across different payment types.
Let’s take a closer look at the evolution of some of the XML tags:
End-to-End reference.
This is the unique reference that a financial institution must pass through the payment chain. Its inclusion ensures better reconciliation and payment tracking.
If we combine the End-to-End tag within the Purpose Of Payment (POP) element and AI technology, we can better understand why and when a customer made a payment. This allows stakeholders to predict customer needs more effectively.
Debtor / Creditor ID = Confirmation of Payee (CoP).
Payment regulation and the XML specific definition of the debtor and creditor provide increased clarity on the identity of actors in the payment chain. With the advance of instant payments and increasing payment fraud, the XML can help provide confirmation of the payee. Services like COP are already established in regions like the UK, SEPA, and Australia, and we expect this adoption to grow across the globe, driven by regulatory requirements.
AI can play a powerful role in combination with ISO 20022 to help reduce fraud and false positives while enhancing transaction monitoring.
LEI in wholesale market.
The Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) is a unique 20-character alphanumeric code assigned to all entities that are counterparties to financial transactions. The code itself is neutral, with no embedded intelligence or country codes that could create unnecessary complexity for users. As cross-border payments become more instant, countries are moving to adopt the LEI as a mandatory requirement in their ISO 20022 messages. For some market participants, such as the UK and India, this is already a reality.
When combined with AML monitoring, the LEI enables automated sanction screening, fraud detection and digital Know Your Customer (KYC) verification.
From enhanced collaboration to real-time capabilities and advanced fraud prevention, the impact of ISO 20022 is transformative. 2025 may be the "final lap," to widespread adoption, but it is only the beginning of a new era in global payments.
