The UK’s Faster Payments organization has released a tool, available to all, to help to translate transactions in ISO format 8583 (use for example for many financial card transactions), to ISO 20022. This will help developers to make the transition to 20022 which is the de facto global message standard with expanded messaging capabilities being used in the development of many of the up and coming real – time payments platforms. Finextra provided details around this release:
Mike Banyard, head of development for Faster Payments, says the free-to-use tool will play an important role in levelling the playing field by simplifying and widening access to the service: “The Faster Payments Standards Library is leading the way in this important area and blazing a trail for standardisation that is as easy as possible to access for developers and fintechs.”
The functionality is scheduled to be extended later in 2017 to allow XML messages to be tested for conformance with the syntax of both the FPS ISO 8583 and ISO 20022 standards specifications.
One of the requirements articulated in the specifications of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s FedPayments Improvement initiative is that real time solutions need to be built with global interoperability. ISO 20022 is anticipated to front –and- center in the platforms determined to meet the Fed’s specs. The ability to transact seamlessly on a global basis will play a hand in helping to make the business case for the rather costly faster payments platforms.
Overview by Sarah Grotta, Director, Debit Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
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