Camt Is Becoming Increasingly Important

Required knowledge

• In-depth knowledge of ISO 20022 standards
• Familiarity with camt messages

The integration of camt (Cash Management) messages into the Swiss Payment Standards (SPS) and the SEPA standard has been a longstanding phenomenon. The recent addition of Swift CBPR+ and Instant Payments to the list of important use cases further solidifies their significance.

What Are Camt Messages?

For efficient account reconciliation and effective cash management, up-to-date account balances and transaction overviews are essential for corporate customers. Camt messages are part of the ISO 20022 standard, which is a global and universal format for the electronic exchange of messages in the financial sector. They are used specifically in communication between banks and their corporate customers and are used to transmit financial information, particularly in cash management. The advantage of these messages lies in their standardization, which enables efficient and automated processing and thus increases the accuracy and speed of financial communication between banks and their corporate customers. The camt standard comprises a variety of message types, each addressing a specific aspect of this interaction.

camt.052

This message, designated as the bank-to-customer account report, provides intraday postings and updates on account movements and account balances. It enables banks to give their corporate customers up-to-date information about the activity on their accounts, which is of particular importance for liquidity management and short-term cash management.

camt.053

The bank-to-customer statement is an account statement that banks prepare at the end of a business day or other agreed period. It contains information about all completed transactions and other postings for that period as well as their balances, such as the closing balance of the account. Depending on the standard, two types of camt.053 messages with accounting-related information are particularly worthy of note:

· camt.053 account statement with internal batch booking resolution

· camt.053 account statement with external batch booking resolution, supplementary to camt.054 messages

camt.054

The bank-to-customer debit/credit notification serves a number of functions in the field of financial management. It serves to inform corporate customers about credits and debits on their accounts and can also provide detailed displays of collective postings.

New: Notification of Incoming Instant Payments

The advent of instant payments has expanded the scope of applications for camt.054 to encompass the final and immediate reporting of credits resulting from real-time transfers. In this context, camt.054 can play a pivotal role by furnishing the beneficiary with prompt information regarding credited, irrevocable payments (Figure 2). This is particularly advantageous in dynamic business environments where expedient payment confirmations are essential to maintain operational continuity, such as in e-commerce. However, it is also applicable to retail, service, and industrial contexts where prompt transaction confirmations are crucial.

New: Cross-border Payments with CBPR+

Cross-border payment transactions are also undergoing radical transformation. The global Swift community is converging from a multitude of legacy messages in MT format based on ISO 20022. This also affects all MT cash management messages from Swift that financial institutions exchange with each other and which must be replaced by corresponding camt messages in accordance with ISO 20022 in the MX CBPR+ standard by 2025.

Although the full implementation of instant payments and the Swift ISO migration may still take several years, it is becoming increasingly evident that ISO 20022 messages will become the standard for cash management transactions.

Peter Ruoss
Product Owner Payment Software Partners, UBS Switzerland AG