The Insight Track: Are you ready for the ISO 20022 marathon?

We're a few months into 2025, and initiatives aimed at post-trade harmonisation are already gathering pace.

One of these is the move to ISO 20022, the international messaging standard, to reduce operational friction and improve capital flows. While the deadline for the payments race is November 2025, it is less clear for securities. 

Why is the securities transition more of a marathon than a sprint?

In this episode of the Insight Track, SWIFT’s Juliette Kennel and TCS’s Giles Elliott, who co-authored an ISSA paper on industry recommendations, share how firms can approach the move to ISO 20022, the route map, and the benefits of moving.  

Transcript: 

Giles, you're well into your training for the London Marathon. Have you noticed any parallels with ISO 20022?

Giles. Yes. The biggest one is not everyone will get the appeal instantly around doing that when it's not mandatory. It needs a bit of reflection, an individual focus and research to really understand that. Beyond that, you clearly can't embark on it without a very clear plan that's aligned to the outcomes you want to achieve. And there really are no easy short cuts to doing it.

For industry participants embarking on this marathon, how do you think they should approach it?

Giles: Firstly, be very clear about the scope. Do you want to be very focused? What is the distance you actually want to run? Secondly, leverage the community and partners. We don't need everyone along at once, but there are a number of partners that can help you with that journey, and that will make a material difference to your progress. Finally, stay the course, be pragmatic and structured about the distance. 

Juliette, can you tell us a bit about the route map for ISO 20022? 

Juliette: Well, the first thing to point out is it really doesn't have to be a marathon, but preparation is key. You need to know what you're going to do and when you're going to do it. On the cross border payments side, the market has come together, and they've already agreed, and they've set a date for November 2025 so the race is set, and they're well on their way. On the securities side, we're really very much in the planning phase, thinking through options. So we haven't set a date yet, but I think all of this really points to preparation. We need clear communication so everyone knows what to expect when, and I think we also need regular health checks along the way, a bit like mile markers in a race.

Giles: Yes, and I think ISSA has done some really good work on ISO 20022 getting feedback from the industry, which included question marks around the integrity of the business case, and lack of desire around a big bang migration. But then, the onus is on individual firms to to push this forward and drive leadership. But it also identified areas within the management on the running of ISO 20022 that we have to fine tune and improve if we're going to get mass adoption by the industry.

Juliette: But the effort really pays off in the end. I mean, just like doing any kind of sport, if you put the effort in, you will get benefits. And from an ISO 20022 perspective, everyone speaking the same language means we all understand each other. It means you can streamline processes and you can make things more efficient. On the payments side, we're already seeing clear business benefits with things like financial crime compliance and better use of data.

With running, some people would like to try it, but don't know where to start. What would you recommend?

Giles: I think there are probably two areas. Firstly, leverage some of the insights from the community. Learn from payments, look at what's happened before within that. A lot of the work that we've done at ISSA lays out a number of points about how to go about this journey, how to think through the business case, and how to get stakeholder engagement. Secondly, to reiterate the point, this doesn't need to be a marathon. Many firms are using technology vendor partners, core processing platforms who have already invested in ISO 20022, so this isn't the Herculean task of a massive technology program. A lot of it comes down to implementing it with selected partners around the world, getting traction, and then building that confidence. 

What's next on the route?

Juliette: I think APIs are going to be a super critical thing. We've been working with Giles on some standardisation of corporate actions around APIs, and as the industry starts to experiment, with new platforms and new digital assets, they will obviously play a critical role. In order to enable us to interoperate with the digital islands that we're beginning to see emerge, we need standards so the move to ISO20022 definitely makes sense.

The Insight Track humanises storytelling by connecting industry leaders’ passions with purpose to reveal authenticity and enrich their content and communication. In the show, I model authenticity by connecting my love of running with that of helping financial industry leaders publicise themselves and their insights through their passions.

Do you have an idea for the Insight Track? Email janet@thoughttreelab.com