Press Releases
IFX Forum Publishes White Paper on New ISO 20022 Stand-alone Remittance Messages
WAKEFIELD, Mass., USA – June 24, 2014 – The Interactive Financial eXchange (IFX; http://www.ifxforum.org) Forum today announced the publication of a new white paper entitled "Understanding the ISO 20022 Stand-Alone Remittance Messages." The paper was created in the interest of easing adoption of the new remittance messages submitted by the IFX Forum and collaborating organizations to ISO 20022 earlier this year. It is available for download at no charge from the Forum website.
The IFX Forum is an international non-profit industry association whose mission is to develop and promote the adoption of its open, interoperable standard for financial data exchange, IFX. ISO 20022 is an international standard for financial services messaging, with a repository containing descriptions of messages and business processes. Remittance information is exchanged between a buyer and a seller to "explain" a payment.
The new messages provide a standard approach for electronic remittance delivery, and their use will eliminate issues in reconciling electronic payments and further enable straight-through-processing of payments. Because these stand-alone messages can be used both inside and outside payment delivery channels, adoption can advance quickly. Businesses can begin to utilize the messages for business-to-business exchanges in the knowledge that financial institutions will be using the same standard.
The new white paper provides in-depth background about the ISO 20022 Stand-alone Remittance messages; why they were developed, how they were developed, the use cases they address, and the case for adoption of the messages by industry and financial service providers. Many examples are included in order to familiarize the reader with the structure and capabilities of the messages.
"The new remittance messages are designed to standardize remittance data exchange in a way that is flexible enough to adapt to current business practices and uniform enough to provide a good avenue forward," said Richard P. Urban, President of the IFX Forum. "Our white paper covers the rationale behind the messages' construction as well as useful information for implementing them, which we hope will be helpful in enabling their adoption."
IFX Forum members NACHA – The Electronic Payments Association, Wells Fargo and Bank of America Merrill Lynch were key contributors to the message development, joined in the submission by Open Applications Group (OAGi). All participants were honored for their contribution to the global standardizing of electronic remittances during the recent EBADay 2014 in Helsinki.
In addition to developing the IFX specification, the Forum actively engages in international standards activity, including longtime liaison efforts with ISO and contributions to ISO 20022, a leadership role in the Remittance Coalition set up by the U.S. Federal Reserve, and Memoranda of Understanding with ASC X9, BIAN and EPASOrg.
About the IFX Forum
Founded in 1997, the Interactive Financial eXchange (IFX) Forum is an international not-for-profit industry association whose mission is to develop IFX and promote its adoption as an open, interoperable standard for financial data exchange, suitable for use by all sectors of the financial services industry. The IFX Forum also promotes interoperability of industry standards by working cooperatively with other standards organizations and consortia.
Forum membership is open to organizations interested in contributing to the development of open financial standards. Forum members include financial institutions, hardware, software and service firms, and related non-profit groups. The IFX Forum is currently organized into the following Working Groups: ATM/POS; Branch Banking Services; Business Banking; Card Management & Servicing, Liaison & Interoperability, Loans, and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). IFX Forum Working Groups, in concert with an Architecture Committee to coordinate their efforts, develop open Internet-compatible messages for all sectors of the financial services industry. To learn more about IFX or the benefits of IFX Forum membership, please visit www.IFXForum.org.
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For further information:
Judith Vanderkay
Virtual, Inc., (781) 876-6208
jvanderkay@virtualmgmt.com