The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) in conjunction with SWIFT will initiate a project to align Ukraine’s payments infrastructure with the international ISO 20022 standard.
"Payment systems’ performance plays an important role in the operation of modern economies. Moving to ISO 20022 is part of a wider development initiative intended to transform Ukraine’s payments infrastructure. The project aims to modernize Ukraine’s financial infrastructure to improve the country’s competitiveness and integration with global markets," said NBU Deputy Governor Sergii Kholod.
One of the project’s objectives is to the System of Electronic Payments of the NBU (SEP) into compliance with international standards for financial messaging :
- harmonize Ukraine’s payment area with that of the world;
- expand payment details by adding supplementary information;
- raise the level of services and the effectiveness of payments;
- enhance the capabilities of payment instruments to benefit banks and their clients;
- take payments automation to the next level.
Going forward, these efforts will simplify the interaction between Ukraine’s and the world’s payment systems through the use of straightforward and globally accepted standards.
SWIFT will provide the NBU with its ISO 20022 expertise and support to help the Ukrainian regulator transform the country’s payments infrastructure.
SWIFT was one of the principal originators of the ISO 20022 standard and contributed the key payments specifications used by market infrastructures and schemes worldwide. SWIFT has played an important role in ISO 20022 implementations in Europe (including SEPA and TARGET2-Securities). SWIFT works with major payment system operators (including the US Fed, CHIPS, the Bank of England, the Eurosystem, and EBA Clearing) to ensure a globally harmonized implementation of the ISO 20022 standard. SWIFT’s own cross-border business will migrate to ISO 20022 from 2021.
"The joint effort between SWIFT and the NBU is important and will facilitate the compatibility of the Ukrainian payments infrastructure with the cross-border infrastructure, thus improving the integrity, speed, and effectiveness of payment processing, the NBU believes," said NBU Deputy Governor Sergii Kholod.
Ilona Pouna, Regional Manager, Central Europe, SWIFT said, "SWIFT has a very longstanding relationship with National Bank of Ukraine and we are delighted to assist with this important project. The Ukraine financial community is committed to financial sector reform, and aligning with international standards such as ISO 20022 will ensure a solid base for future innovation in the payments system and the wider financial infrastructure."