SWIFT In-Flow Translation Streaming Service for Cross Border Payments

Main article: SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication)

2021: Test run of In Flow Translation service compatible with ISO 20022

On December 15, 2021, SWIFT (the global interbank financial telecommunications community) announced the launch of the In Flow Translation financial message translation service, which is a fully compatible test environment for cross-border payments with the ISO 20022 industry standard. The In Flow Translation streaming service allows financial institutions to exchange data even if their counterparties do not yet use the ISO20022 standard. The test period will allow SWIFT customers to prepare for the use of ISO 20022 one year before its implementation.

For banks that are not yet ready to process messages in the ISO 20022 format, the service allows you to translate ISO 20022 messages into the format of existing MT standards and delivers messages in both formats so that customers can always receive complete data. The use of the service ensures that all members of the SWIFT community will be able to perform operations as usual during the migration process to the standard, which will begin in November 2022 and last until November 2025.

SWIFT presents the In-flow Translation service to its customers in a test format so that banks can study ISO 20022 in advance and gain experience in this operating environment. From August 2022, the first users will be able to use the service on a preliminary request. All banks will be automatically connected to the service in November 2022 at the same time as the mandatory implementation of the ISO 20022 standard for large cross-border payments in the Eurozone begins.

One of the main tasks of our strategy to ensure instant and seamless payments is to ensure that all participants can continue to use the service and that financial institutions can switch to the new standard in the way that is most convenient for them and their customers. By launching In-flow Translation and completing the ISO20022 test environment, we give our Community members ample time to prepare for the adoption of the new standard. The transition to ISO 20022 is a key component of our strategy, which will allow banks to gain significant benefits for business development. Streaming is necessary in order to soften the transition by maintaining compatibility between different types of messages. said Stephen Lindsay, Head of Direction, SWIFT Platform.

By enabling the transmission of more extensive and better structured data in payment messages, ISO 20022 will improve the end-user experience and become the foundation for building the financial industry of the future.

Using the capabilities of its global network, which includes more than 11,000 participants and 4 billion accounts in 200 countries as of December 2021, SWIFT seeks to minimize the likelihood of failures and ensure that the cooperative is ready for the beginning of the transition period, including those banks whose back offices will not immediately switch to ISO 20022. The readiness of the test environment, including In-Flow Translation, means that banks will have a whole year to study the upcoming mandatory changes.