The UK’s high-value payments system, CHAPS, has migrated to the ISO 20022 financial messaging standard. The move, which was completed in June 2023, ahead of SWIFT’s retirement of its existing MT message standard for cross-border payments in November 2025.
The migration to ISO 20022 will bring a host of benefits for CHAPS users, including:
Enriched data: ISO 20022 messages contain more data than the MT messages they are replacing, which will allow CHAPS users to have a better understanding of their payments.
Global harmonization: ISO 20022 is a global standard, which means that CHAPS users will be able to send and receive payments with other financial institutions around the world using the same format.
Enhanced analytics: The richer data in ISO 20022 messages will allow CHAPS users to better analyze their payments data, which can help them to identify trends and patterns.
Improved resilience: ISO 20022 is a more robust standard than MT, which will make CHAPS more resilient to disruptions.
The migration to ISO 20022 is part of a wider multi-year programme to renew the Bank of England’s Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) service. The new RTGS service, which is due to be rolled out in summer 2024, will use ISO 20022 messages.
The migration to ISO 20022 is a significant milestone for CHAPS and the UK payments landscape. It will help to make CHAPS more efficient, secure, and resilient, and it will pave the way for the future of cross-border payments.
Victoria Cleland, executive director, payments, BofE, says:
“The introduction of the ISO 20022 financial messaging standard marks a major milestone in our mission to enhance our RTGS and CHAPS services: critical infrastructure at the heart of the financial system.
In an increasingly globalised payments world, harmonisation of messaging through ISO 20022 will enable more systems to speak the same language and ultimately enhance cross border payments.”
