Roadmap: The Planning Tool for Swiss Payments Projects

At the end of September, SIX updated the Swiss payment traffic roadmap on its website. In addition to the now fixed date for the discontinuation of the LSV+/BDD direct debit procedures, the latest developments regarding the introduction of the “hybrid address” in national and international payment traffic, the adjusted transition periods in the Swiss payment standards and the migration plan for the SIC RTGS service from the SIC4 to the SIC5 platform with the successful launch of instant payments have been included. The migration to the Swiss Secure Finance Network (SSFN) has been completed and is no longer visible. This means that all those interested in payment traffic will again have an up-to-date overview of developments in the coming years.

However, the publication of this recent version does not mark the end of the planning process, but forms the basis for a new cycle. Swiss payment traffic is linked to international developments, driven by SEPA and Swift. Developments in other market infrastructures and central banking systems are also of foremost importance for SIC. As Switzerland consistently relies on ISO standards – such as ISO 20022 for message formats, ISO 13616 for the IBAN, ISO 4217 for currency codes, and ISO 11649 for the Creditor Reference – the international development in these standards has a direct impact on Swiss specifications and implementations.

Seeing Through the Thicket

The roadmap also provides valuable information for planning the changeover in Switzerland. For example, it quickly becomes clear that, given the planned migration of all SIC services to the new platform in November 2026, it is not advisable to make far-reaching changes to the services in the same period. This provides the national and international committee members with a basis for making decisions and arguing the Swiss position.

The roadmap was drawn up in 2020. Although the Swiss payment traffic committees, led by the Board of Directors of SIX Interbank Clearing, were aware of the upcoming changes, it was difficult to get an overview of all the interconnections: the interdependencies between the ISO 20022 migration in Swift and TARGET, the associated conversion of the ISO 20022 message version in SIC and in the SEPA schemes, the adaptations and enhancements of the SEPA schemes, the targeted obligation to use the structured address, the abolition of IS/ISR and its replacement by the QR-bill, the introduction of instant payments in SIC, and the conversion to SSFN.

Experts from various financial institutions and SIX, supported by an external project manager, developed the structure and building blocks of the roadmap and defined the thematic priorities. It was immediately well received, both nationally and internationally, particularly in terms of accessibility and transparency.

The level of awareness is such that major adjustments are submitted to the Board of Directors for approval in advance. All committees use the roadmap for their own planning. This is less a matter of making substantive decisions than of recognizing interdependencies and determining the optimal time to implement innovations.

Guide for Financial Institutions

The roadmap serves as a planning guide for those responsible for standards at SIX and their partners in the financial institutions. Good standards and guidelines should support market development in the long term, rather than hindering it. It is therefore all the more important to identify such developments at an early stage and to anticipate necessary changes. Sudden and far-reaching adjustments are expensive and resource-intensive. Projects that are prepared and coordinated over a longer period of time require less effort and often offer advantages to all market participants.

The roadmap also provides some answers to questions about content. Once both Swift and the SEPA committees had decided to introduce the hybrid address, it was clear that the Swiss payment traffic would follow suit and adopt the planned introduction and migration dates. This led to further adjustments, such as the migration to the ISO 20022 messages with an adjustment of the parallel phase and the extended acceptance of the unstructured address.

The internal working version used in the committees covers more aspects than the published roadmap. For one thing, it includes areas where no changes are planned, but which could have an impact on the development. It also includes developments where decisions have not yet been made and therefore cannot be published. Over time, the roadmap has proven to be extremely useful. While the launch dates for Swift, TARGET, and the SEPA area had to be repeatedly postponed, the Swiss financial center was able to launch all projects as planned.

The preparations for the next update have already begun. It is already apparent that new influencing factors such as HVPS+ as a harmonization platform for infrastructures or the development of EBICS 4.0 as the next version of this important communication standard are coming to the fore. While the Swift migration will soon be completed, at least for instruction messages, the planned consolidation of the SIC platform and the end date of 2026 for all Swiss payment traffic banks for instant payments will also determine national developments for the next two years.

Martin Walder
Head Billing & Payments Standards, SIX