A group of financial market associations have announced their support for a global initiative to harmonise the implementation of ISO 20022 standards across the industry, according to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Technology (Swift). The associations include: The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), Bank of Canada, Clearstream, Canadian Payments Association (CPA), CLS, Euroclear, Hong Kong Interbank Clearing (HKICL), Russia’s National Settlement Depository (NSD), Southern African Development Community (SADC), VP Securities Denmark and ACH Colombia.

There is concern that different versions of the ISO 20022 standards will be adopted in different countries. According to Gerry Gaetz, president and CEO at the Canadian Payments Association, there are more than 200 initiatives around the world aimed at implementing ISO 20022, so there is a clear need to coordinate this rollout.

To address this, financial market infrastructure associations have signed a charter that supports Swift's proposals for implementation. The ISO 20022 harmonisation charter has four basic principles:

• share information between FMIs about ISO 20022 usage;
• adhere to global market practice where it exists and contribute to new global market practice initiatives;
• introduce stricter message version control and release management process and timing;
• publish up-to-date information about standards on a common platform, including market practice compliance, messages and versions used and message release timeline.

Euroclear's head of product management, Edwin de Pauw, said: “Swift's proposal not only gives us a good framework to follow, but also recognizes the varying maturity levels of ISO 20022 adoption across multiple capital markets.”