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 are summarized in the Business Rules and Implementation Guidelines. 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 Swiss financial institutions guarantee the following interface compatibility: that they will support the latest "Major" version of the Business Rules and Implementation Guidelines published by SIX Interbank Clearing plus the preceding version (i.e. always the two most recent "Major" Guideline versions in parallel).

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

Change Request Form
    • Entry into force date:

    Swiss Business Rules SPS 2022 (Version 3.0)

    The Business Rules for credit transfers, SEPA direct debits and Cash Management describe from a business perspective the business cases with the parties involved and the messages used (payment types) and list the most important validation rule and error handling.

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    • Entry into force date:

    Implementation Guidelines for Credit Transfers SPS 2022 (Version 2.0.1)

    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).

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    • Entry into force date:

    Implementation Guidelines for Cash Management SPS 2022 (Version 2.0.1)

    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).

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    • Delta Guide: Cash Management SPS 2022

      Detailed description of the changes implemented to the XML Schema and the camt.053 message, migrating from the previous version (SPS 2021) to SPS 2022 using the ISO 20022 Schema 2019.

    • Entry into force date:

    Implementation Guidelines for Status Report SPS 2022 (Version 2.0.1)

    The XML message "Customer Payment Status Report" (pain.002) is used to inform the customer about the status of transmitted transfer orders "pain.001" or collection orders "pain.008" by the financial institution. These documents serve as guidance for the technical implementation of the ISO 20022 message "Customer Payment Status Report" (pain.002).

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    Implementation Guidelines for Swiss direct debits SPS 2018 (Version 1.2)

    The definitions for Swiss direct debits cover the banks schemes (LSV+/BDD) and the PostFinance scheme (CH-DD direct debit) and enable the collection of direct debits using the ISO 20022 standard:
    ● version 1 for the CH-DD direct debit scheme and
    ● version 2 for the LSV+/BDD schemes

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    • Entry into force date:

    Implementation Guidelines for SEPA direct debits SPS 2021 (Version 2.7)

    The EPC specifications form the basis of the Swiss SEPA direct debit guidelines. These documents serve as instructions for the technical implementation of the ISO 20022 message «Customer Direct Debit Initiation» (pain.008) for SEPA direct debits. The use of the respective version must be agreed upon with the financial institution.

    Open document
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.

Link to Validation Portal Customer-Bank Messages:

https://validation.iso-payments.ch

Interbank Messages

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

Implementation Guidelines

A modular approach was used for the structure of the Implementation Guidelines. The module documentation – an overarching basic document and individual message-specific documents – contains information on the application-specific handling of the relevant ISO 20022 messages in exchange with SIC and euroSIC.

The older versions are available in the archives.

Downloads for the SIC Platform Release 4.9 

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.

Link to Validation Portal Customer-Bank Messages:

https://validation.iso-payments.ch/SIC4