ISO 20022

ISO 20022

What Is ISO 20022?

ISO 20022 is a globally accepted standard for creating messages for the financial services industry. These messages may convey various types of transactions, for example a payment instruction, or information such as an account statement between the parties involved.

Customer-Bank Messages

On behalf of the Payments Committee Switzerland (PaCoS), recommendations for a Swiss market practice (Swiss Payment Standards) for customer-bank data exchange are being formulated and published based on the ISO 20022 messages. They cover the business areas of cash management reporting and payment instruction placement.

In addition to the Swiss Interbank Clearing (SIC/euroSIC) regulations, the Swiss Payment Standards (SPS) also take into account the requirements of the European Payment Council for SEPA and for cross-border payments via the SWIFT network.

Swiss Payment Standards

The Swiss Payment Standards (SPS) are summarized in the Business Rules and Implementation Guidelines (IGs). Every November an ordinary standard release takes place. An overview of the currently valid versions and from February the versions for the next release is presented below.

The older versions are available in the archives.

The new versions of the Swiss Payment Standards documents ("SPS 2023") for customer-bank message are applicable from 20 November 2023, after the SIC release of 17 November 2023, and include adjustments for the SEPA release of 2023 and various editorial adjustments and clarifications. These are "minor" versions that do not require any mandatory technical adjustments on the part of the customer.​

The SPS 2023 release includes adjustments to the following IGs:​

  • Implementation Guidelines for Credit Transfers (Version 2.0.2)
  • Implementation Guidelines for Cash Management (Version 2.0.​2)

All other IGs (see "Currently valid versions") will not be adapted and will remain valid after 20 November 2023.​

Swiss Business Rules (Version 3.0.1)
There will only be adjustments in wording; publication in November 2023.

    • Entry into force date:

    Implementation Guidelines for Credit Transfers (Version 2.0.2)

    The definitions on credit transfers (Payment Initiation) cover the entire Swiss payment traffic and enable the submission of payment orders (including SEPA). This document serves as guidance for the technical implementation of the ISO 20022 message "Customer Credit Transfer Initiation" (pain.001).

    Open document
    • Entry into force date:

    Implementation Guidelines for Cash Management (Version 2.0.2)

    The definitions for the bank-to-customer message report (Cash Management) cover the electronic account statement as well as the debit and credit notifications. This document serves as guidance for the technical implementation of the "Bank To Customer Account Report" (camt.052), "Bank To Customer Statement" (camt.053) and "Bank To Customer Debit/Credit Notification" (camt.054).

    Open document

The Swiss financial institutions guarantee the following interface compatibility: that they will support the latest "Major" version of the Implementation Guidelines published by SIX Interbank Clearing plus the preceding version.

Due to the message version change with SPS 2022, a three-year parallel use was agreed for the SPS 2021 IGs until November 2025.

Change requests can be submitted via consultations@paymentstandards.ch at any time.

Change Request Form
Validation Portal Customer-Bank Messages

The validation portal serves to promote the uniform application of the ISO 20022 standard for payments in the Swiss financial center. It supports software providers/corporates and financial institutions in their effort to ensure a high quality of the technical validation of ISO 20022 messages.

Access to the Validation Portal

Interbank Messages

The "Implementation Guidelines for ISO 20022 Interbank Messages", which contain the rules mutually agreed upon by Swiss interbank governance bodies and committees, are binding for all SIC and euroSIC participants.

These Implementation Guidelines are an integral part of the SIC/euroSIC Handbook and therefore also part of the specification for participation in these systems. Further information on formal, operational and technical aspects of participation in the SIC or euroSIC system are available on the password-protected extranet of SIX Interbank Clearing Ltd.

Implementation Guidelines

A modular approach is used for the structure of the Implementation Guidelines. They consist of a base document with general information concerning all message types, and several module documents – one each per ISO 20022 message type or use case – with message-specific information, including information on the application-specific handling of individual elements. These specify how the messages are to be submitted to and received from the RTGS systems SIC and euroSIC using the ISO 20022 message standard.

The older versions are available in the archives.

The content of the SIC Platform Release 4.10 dated 17 November 2023, which has been defined and approved by the governing interbank committees, was announced by means of an official circular letter (incl. Release Notes, dated 20 February 2023, errata as of 22 May 2023) and published on the password-protected extranet of SIX Interbank Clearing Ltd.

Implementation Guidelines – SIC Platform Release 4.10

The Implementation Guidelines of the SIC Platform Release 4.10 consist of the "Base Document" and 21 associated module documents. In addition, for 6 of the module documents so-called "Delta Commentary" documents are provided, which contain detailed information on changes within the affected messages. Further information about changes within the module documents and the XML schemas can also be found in the overview documents, which are integrated into the enclosed ZIP files.

Validation Portal Interbank Messages

The validation portal interbank messages helps to promote the uniform application of the ISO 20022 standard for SIC and euroSIC payments. It allows financial institutions to ensure a high quality of the technical validation of ISO 20022 interbank messages.

Access to the Validation Portal