More than compliance – ISO 20022 is a strategic shift
ISO 20022 represents a powerful opportunity to reinvent treasury operations for the digital age. By moving from legacy MT messages to data-rich XML-formats (often referred to as MX messages) for payments, settlements, and bank statements, organizations can build a more agile, insight-driven, and resilient treasury function.
ISO 20022 lays the foundation for smarter decision-making, streamlined processes, and future-proofed financial operations. This means the new standard is a strategic opportunity rather than “just another technical upgrade.”
Why now? ISO 20022’s global rollout is underway
Many financial infrastructure providers have already adopted or are currently implementing ISO 20022:
- TARGET2 and CHAPS, the EU and UK’s gross settlement systems, have already completed their transitions.
- Fedwire in the US is due to implement ISO 20022 by July 2025.
- SWIFT’s cross-border payments migration entered its “coexistence” phase in March 2023, with MT messages set to retire in November 2025.
The milestones from these key stakeholders represent a window for corporates to modernize their payment infrastructures and unlock the benefits of richer, standardized data before a future mandatory shift to the new standard for all business transactions.
What corporates stand to gain from embracing ISO 20022
Global consistency and interoperability
For corporates operating across multiple regions, ISO 20022 simplifies tasks by introducing one common standard for payments and bank statements. This means fewer format conversions, easier integration with banks, and smoother cross-border operations.
Real-time cash visibility and smarter liquidity forecasting
With structured transaction data and consistent remittance fields, treasurers will get a clearer view of where the cash is, where it is going, and why. This visibility helps improve forecasting accuracy, reduce idle balances, and support proactive liquidity decisions across all business units.
Increased payments automation and STP
Standardized formats reduce the guesswork in addressing payment issues and matching payments to invoices. This translates to fewer manual interventions, faster processing times, and higher straight-through processing (STP) rates. This will allow teams to focus on strategic value-added activities.
Better compliance and risk management
ISO 20022 provides richer data for every transaction, which helps improve screening for Anti-Money Laundering (AML), and tax compliance. More structured fields mean fewer false positives, easier audit trails, and more effective risk controls.
Simplified integration with banks and internal systems
ISO 20022’s consistent format makes onboarding new banks into your IT infrastructure easier. It also reduces the need for customized ERP logic or middleware tweaks. This will cut implementation times and IT overhead while simplifying future upgrades.
Empowered data strategy and a foundation for AI
ISO 20022 lays the groundwork for smarter treasury operations by turning financial messages into structured, machine readable data. This will help enable and improve AI-powered forecasting, machine learning for automated exception handling, and intelligent dashboards that support faster and better decision making.
ISO 20022 creates strategic issues requiring executive commitment
There’s significant upside to a proactive migration, but implementing the new standard successfully will take more than just IT support. Strategic alignment and executive backing are key to avoid delays and operational disruption.
Here are some typical challenges we’ve seen when it comes to making an ISO 20022 implementation a success:
Siloed decision-making
Approaching the project as “just a technical upgrade” inevitably means that the broader benefits of the new standard get lost. Treasury, finance, IT, and compliance teams need to work in lockstep, with leadership setting the strategic priorities.
Bank specific variations
Not all banks interpret ISO 20022 the same way. That means you’ll need a consistent yet flexible approach to how your organization handles the creation of messages, especially when collaborating with multiple partners across different geographies.
Incomplete data foundations
ISO 20022 is only as good as the data it carries. If your internal data, like customer references, invoice details, payment information, or bank account details is inconsistent, automation and forecasting will fall short. Your teams should expect to spend at least some time preparing and cleaning your datasets before bringing them over to your new architecture.
Transformation fatigue
With many large enterprises managing multiple ongoing digital transformation projects, it can be easy for leadership, IT, finance, and other stakeholders to dismiss ISO 20022 as another distraction from day to day operations and more critical projects. Presenting it as a strategic enabler can help ensure it receives the necessary focus and investment. This will also help ensure that implementation doesn’t become a crisis closer to the deadline.
Change management gaps
A successful rollout means more than system readiness. Your staff will need training, support, and clear processes for working with the new standard – no matter how sophisticated your technology partners or how highly automated your new approach is. Skipping this step can lead to frustrations for leadership (in terms of unmet expectations), your teams (in terms of disruption to their workflows), and ultimately delay your realization of any benefits.
A roadmap for a strategic ISO 20022 migration
To maximize the benefits of ISO 20022, finance leaders should approach migration as a strategic initiative. Here’s four practical steps you can take as you consider and begin the process:
Create a cross functional steering group
Bring together treasury, IT, finance, and compliance leaders to define a shared vision and roadmap.
Standardize with flexibility
Create a unified internal model that allows for necessary local variations to meet specific bank or regional requirements.
Choose scalable tools
Opt for flexible solutions that can evolve as your needs grow and avoid those that lock you into rigid configurations.
Focus on strategic metrics
Track KPIs like payments STP rates, reconciliation efficiency, and bank onboarding speed to measure the business impact.
A moment to modernize
ISO 20022 is a significant opportunity to rethink and reinvent treasury operations for the age of global digital commerce.
With a well-thought-out strategy, your adoption can significantly enhance efficiency, provide better visibility, and set the stage for a finance organization that is intelligent and driven by data.
This is a moment to modernize and elevate the treasury functions to align with contemporary demands and position for future changes.
The window of opportunity is open. The time is now to seize the advantages of ISO 20022 and transform treasury operations.
How can Serrala help you ensure a smooth ISO 20022 migration process?
Serrala’s Treasury Services Team have been helping large enterprises navigate complex transformations to their financial architecture for over 30 years. Providing strategic advisory services alongside pioneering technology solutions that streamline and automate processes across your organization’s finance operations.
We’re already helping organizations to meet the challenges of ISO 20022 migration head on, making the journey simpler, faster, and more rewarding. Our solutions are built with operational realities in mind, and help your organization to create architecture and approaches that ensure compliance without the need for major changes to your existing ERP and technology investments.
You can learn more about ISO 20022 and its implications for your organization here. To discuss your own circumstances and start developing your own migration strategy, or click here to get in touch with an expert.
