BNP Paribas has become the first global cash management bank to go live with Swift’s end-to-end capability enabling corporates to initiate ISO 20022 payment instructions. This significant achievement is a result of close collaboration with ArcelorMittal, FIS®, Swift and UTSIT, and marks a major milestone in the bank's commitment to innovation and co-creation.
The first end-to-end ISO 20022 transaction, initiated by ArcelorMittal, was successfully processed by BNP Paribas earlier today and sent over the Swift network. This demonstrates the bank's ability to provide seamless and efficient cash management services and is a testament to the bank's dedication to supporting its clients in their digital transformation journey.
Swift announced in May that it would help financial institutions streamline cross-border payments for their corporate customers by extending ISO 20022 across the entire payment chain, while also giving banks ready-to-use tracking services that can be activated easily for customers.
ISO 20022 provides a single language for payments, with richer, more structured data enabling financial institutions to enhance payments processing and providing a foundation for an enhanced customer experience.
Since the first week of November 2024, BNP Paribas has also enabled the Swift Tracker via API or messaging with multiple clients already using it, including ArcelorMittal. Additional clients will be moving to production in the coming months for both payment initiation and tracking, followed by a group of early adopters in 2025.
"We are thrilled to be at the forefront of this enhancement, which aligns with our strategy to drive innovation and co-creation in cash management," said Damien Godderis, Head of Payments Industry Engagement at BNP Paribas. "By enabling corporates to initiate payment instructions as ISO 20022, we are taking a significant step towards standardisation and simplification of payment processes. We look forward to extending this capability to more clients in the coming months."
Swift is working to make it easier for banks to offer ready-made services to their corporate customers and accelerate the benefit of advanced Swift capabilities. Swift’s work to extend ISO20022 to Corporates was developed with a working group of 25 leading cash management banks and 25 sector-leading corporates, as well as their treasury application partners.
The end-to-end use of ISO 20022 will help financial institutions capture rich data and lead to an enhanced payments ecosystem.
"Having supported ArcelorMittal in implementing Swift 25 years ago, we are proud to continue assisting them in this new milestone by evolving the services they use with their banks through Swift for the years to come,” said Olivier Ringard,Partner at UTSIT.
"This transition will enable ArcelorMittal to leverage the full potential of ISO 20022 standards, and the innovative services developed by Swift. With BNP Paribas having provided valuable support during the pilot phase, the focus now is on extending the use of FINplus to all of ArcelorMittal's banking partners,“ concludes Inna Sanne, Static data Referent at ArcelorMittal.
As a strong advocate of this Swift initiative since its inception, BNP Paribas has worked closely with the working group to bring this project to fruition. The bank's commitment to innovation and co-creation has enabled it to stay ahead of the curve in cash management, providing its clients with cutting-edge solutions that meet their evolving needs.
The successful launch of this capability is just the beginning, as BNP Paribas plans to extend the access of other Swift features to corporates, including reporting and Stop-and-Recall capabilities.
Brice Goemans, Corporates Product Owner at Swift, said: “This capability is a key milestone in streamlining and enhancing the cross-border payments landscape for corporate treasurers. Swift has been actively supporting the industry’s decision to migrate to ISO 20022, and is looking forward to seeing an increasing number of financial institutions and their customers benefit from richer and better structured data.”
To learn more about the Swift initiative, visit www.swift.com
To learn more about ArcelorMittal Treasury, visit their LinkedIn page
To learn more about UTSIT, visit www.utsit.fr
