Citi's announcement that they are now processing 1 million XML transaction each month is an important illustration of the speed at which XML usage is growing. Cit's million/month is made up of payment messages - a mixture of cross-border and domestic payments - plus account statement messages.

Citi are promoting XML 20022 aggressively for their corporate clients. The ISO 20022 standards emerged from various initiatives focused on establishing a single common comprehensive electronic data exchange (EDI) model to enable globally consistent data exchange between corporations and their banks.

Hubert JP Jolly, Global Head of Channel and Enterprise Services at Citi Transaction Services, describes ISO XML as "A gamechanger for corporates connection to their banks. Once a company adopts XML 20022 standards and map all their payments and accounts reporting to these new standards. They won't have to change again." The nightmare of remapping for each new provider is disappearing.

There are several ways XML 20022 messages can be generated. Citi has developed a set of ISO 20022 XML templates called CitiConnect ERP Integrator that allows clients the ability to install the solution in their SAP environment and generate CGI-compliant ISO 20022 XML data.  This data is generated as a by-product of the standard SAP payment run  process with no additional software required. CitiConnect ERP Integrator greatly reduces the need for clients to develop custom solutions with costly resources while reducing the overall implementation time required for clients to connect to Citi. Other alternatives are to use a SWIFT link or a SWIFT service bureau to generate the message, and third party mapping services.

Not only this. The Johnson Controls case study showed use of ISO XML 20022 standard messages really does save money and time, and it reduces dependence on specific banks.