(Yicai) Oct. 30 -- The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, which is a vast messaging network that allows banks to securely transmit information and instructions such as money transfers, will be migrating to a new international standard of financial information in China between now and next year, the head of the organization’s China operations told Yicai.

The ISO 20022 standard was proposed by the International Organization for Standardization to create a common language and model for global payment data. The standard has significant advantages in providing rich, structured information, improving interoperability and enhancing compliance, Yang Wen told Yicai in an exclusive interview at the Sibos 2024 annual conference held last week.

Migrating to the new standard will bring huge changes to commercial banks and have a far-reaching impact, said Yang.

Eighty percent of the world’s bank transaction volume and 90 percent of the transaction value is expected to be transmitted using the ISO 20022 standard by the end of next year. La Hulpe-based Swift started to migrate to the new format in March 2023.

In the era of digital finance, Swift still wants to play the role of a bridge, Yang said. Swift performs this role in the form of relaying information and in the form of facilitating the interaction between technologies and platforms with its services and solutions. Swift supports smooth interactions between fiat currencies as well as between existing fiat currencies and future forms of value such as sovereign digital currencies.

"Swift connects tens of thousands of institutions in more than 200 countries around the world, including central banks, commercial banks, market infrastructure and large enterprises, and has a deep understanding of the regulatory policies and market operating rules of different countries and regions," Yang said.

“We hope to help institutions, including central bank digital currency policy makers and operators, enhance their understanding of regulatory policies and regulations in different markets. In this way, Swift can help minimize interoperability barriers caused by regulatory policy differences right from the initial stages of system design and planning,” he added.

The People’s Bank of China will continue to promote the high-level opening up of the financial sector and expand connectivity between Chinese and overseas financial markets, Lu Lei, deputy governor of the central bank, said at the conference.

This openness will bring greater opportunities to institutions participating in cross-border financial services, including Swift, Yang said.

Editor: Kim Taylor