It has been learned today (May 29) that the international standards "Financial Services — Universal financial industry message scheme — Part 5: Conceptual interoperability and reverse engineering" (ISO 20022-5:2026) and "Financial Services — Universal financial industry message scheme — Part 7: Registration" (ISO 20022-7:2026), for which China led the revision efforts, have been approved and published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
"Financial Services — Universal financial industry message scheme" (ISO 20022) is one of the most widely applied and influential foundational international standards in the global financial sector, often referred to as the "universal language" for financial information exchange. The ISO 20022 message library built upon this standard already covers major financial business areas such as payment clearing and securities, and is progressively becoming the core communication medium for interconnection among global financial institutions and financial infrastructures.
In recent years, driven by initiatives from international organizations such as the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the global financial system has accelerated its adoption of ISO 20022 messages. To address challenges in this process, including significant differences in business models and data elements among various message standards that hinder smooth conversion, as well as common pain points faced by financial institutions such as "difficulty in obtaining materials, difficulty in version tracing, and slow technical response," China collaborated with countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan. Together, they revised the standard's metamodel, modeling, and syntax, updating content such as application programming interfaces (APIs), data types, and syntax generation rules, thereby jointly improving the ISO 20022 standard system.
Specifically, ISO 20022-5 establishes a conversion interface, building an efficient "bridge" for interconnection between different message standards, effectively enhancing the efficiency of financial services such as cross-border payments. ISO 20022-7 strengthens the version tracing mechanism, clarifies the responsible entities for registration services, optimizes technical support channels, and prevents data fragmentation caused by version inconsistencies, thereby helping more banks and payment institutions to quickly and smoothly integrate into the ISO 20022 standard system.
The release of these two standards embodies the wisdom and consensus of over 50 financial experts from 17 countries and 6 international financial institutions. They are expected to further enhance the efficiency of financial services and the convenience of global cross-border transactions, providing technical support for building an open and integrated international financial system.
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