ISO 20022, a new global standard for electronic messaging between financial institutions, was initially created to give the financial industry a common platform for sending and receiving data about payments.

However, financial institutions should not look at ISO 20022 as merely a compliance burden to be met, but an opportunity to serve clients better and gain a competitive edge. The amount of data related to payments that will be transmitted under ISO 20022 standards is so robust that it gives banks the ability to know their clients better and create new products and services tailored to their needs.

The robust and granular data will also aid financial institutions in fighting fraud, allowing them to detect potentially fraudulent patterns in payments and stop them before they are completed.

To learn about the importance of ISO 20022 for financial institutions, what benefits it offers, and what it means for the future of payments going forward, PaymentsJournal sat with Andrew Foulds, Director of Global Clearing Solutions, Product Management, EMEA at Fiserv, and Steve Murphy, Director of Commercial and Enterprise Payments Service at Javelin Strategy & Research, for a podcast discussion on this topic.

PaymentsJournalHow Banks Can Realize Business Benefits and Reduce Payments Fraud With ISO 20022PaymentsJournal How Banks Can Realize Business Benefits and Reduce Payments Fraud With ISO 20022PaymentsJournaljQuery(document).ready(function ($){var settings_ap23378923 = { design_skin: "skin-wave" ,autoplay: "off",disable_volume:"default" ,loop:"off" ,cue: "on" ,embedded: "off" ,preload_method:"metadata" ,design_animateplaypause:"off" ,skinwave_dynamicwaves:"off" ,skinwave_enableSpectrum:"off" ,skinwave_enableReflect:"on",settings_backup_type:"full",playfrom:"default",soundcloud_apikey:"" ,skinwave_comments_enable:"off",settings_php_handler:window.ajaxurl,skinwave_wave_mode:"canvas",pcm_data_try_to_generate: "on","pcm_notice": "off","notice_no_media": "on",design_color_bg: "111111",design_color_highlight: "ef6b13",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_waves_number: "3",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_waves_padding: "1",skinwave_wave_mode_canvas_reflection_size: "0.25",skinwave_comments_playerid:"23378923",php_retriever:"https://www.paymentsjournal.com/wp-content/plugins/dzs-zoomsounds/soundcloudretriever.php" }; try{ dzsap_init(".ap_idx_408716_29",settings_ap23378923); }catch(err){ console.warn("cannot init player", err); } });

This blog is the second of a two-part series covering that podcast. Part 1, which covered why the ISO 20022 standards were delayed and what financial institutions can expect around their implementation, can be found here.

The Many Benefits of ISO 20022 Compliance

Foulds observed that when it comes to ISO 20022, “The focus on compliance with these regulatory changes can make institutions lose sight of what the business benefits are. These messages contain a lot more data and richer data. That allows us to look at and examine this data and turn it into information, which can then be used to create new services for clients.”

Foulds added that banks can take the new data and “turn it into something useful and add to the services you are already providing now.”

For example, ISO 20022 data can be used to help business clients better manage liquidity and cash flow. ISO 20022 data can also be applied to supply chains to help solve supply chain network problems.