In the News

With less than 6 months to go, organisations need to decide on their strategy to achieve compliance with the SWIFT gpi/Universal Confirmations initiative.

If you would like to find out how to not only achieve this but to also maximise the benefits of the initiative, then please click on the White Paper below.

Adopting SWIFT gpi and Maximising the Benefits – Aqua Global Solutions

‘The Federal Reserve Banks will continue to collaborate with other high-value payment system operators to ensure a coordinated implementation approach. However, given the coronavirus (COVID-19), it is unlikely that we will announce a final decision on the ISO 20022 migration strategy before the end of this year, but we can provide an update on the status of Phase 1 of the migration. We will not implement the Phase 1 release in 2020 or 2021 and do not have any other message format changes for the Fedwire Funds Service planned through 2021.’

Source: https://www.frbservices.org/news/communications/052720-fedwire-iso-20022-migration-update.html

Aqua Global’s Duplicate Message and Fraud Detection Module safeguards an organisation from this problem arising as a result of accidental or deliberate actions.

The solution is highly flexible and can be configured to select exactly, what data elements in a message are to be used, to determine if a message is a duplicate or fraudulent. The solution can be configured for any service channel such as SWIFT FIN, ISO 20022, Local Clearing, mobile banking etc. as well as manual input.

For Further information please click here: https://www.aqua-global-solutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Duplicate-Message-and-Fraud-Detection-Module.pdf

Due to the coronavirus pandemic SIBOS 2020 that was due to take place in Boston in October has been cancelled. SWIFT are currently exploring ways of sharing the content digitally throughout the week instead.

More info can be found here.

SWIFT FIN
The initiation phase has been delayed from 2021 to 2022, however, the migration completion date remains 2025.

TARGET2/EURO1
The deadline has been not been affected and remains 2021.

CHAPS
Phase 1 (preparation phase) whereby both the like for like and enhanced message ISO 20022 schema will be published, is due to be completed in 2020. The date of completion for Phase 2 (Introductory phase) remains 2022, however, although direct participants will still only be required to send like-for-like data content in this phase, they must now be able to receive and (if required) pass-through enhanced data. Phase 3 (enhancement phase) is scheduled to be completed in 2023 and will require all direct participants to be able to also send the enhanced messages.

Fedwire/CHIPS
The Phase 1 initiation date has been delayed and will not begin on November 2021, however, currently the predicted migration completion date remains 2023.

Aqua can provide solutions to many of the vulnerabilities that are detailed in the “SWIFT Customer Security Controls Framework Detailed Description” available on the SWIFT website and hence improve security and reduce the risk of fraudulent activity.

These solutions include:
– SWIFT Lau
– SFTP/MQ
– Two Factor Authentication (2FA)

SWIFT CSP Factsheet: SWIFT Customer Security Programme (CSP) – Aqua Global

If you would like to schedule a call to discuss how Aqua can potentially assist your bank then contact Aqua on +44 (0)20 8544 3200 or email info@aqua-global-solutions.com

SWIFT has announced a 12 month delay to the start of the ISO 20022 migration, with the board announcing the following:

‘Acting on feedback from the community, SWIFT will enable ISO 20022 messages for cross-border payments and cash reporting businesses starting from the end of 2022, which extends the originally announced date by one year, so that banks can adopt at their own pace, and reduce the total industry costs of realising the benefits of ISO 20022 together with the new platform.’

For further information please click here: https://www.swift.com/standards/iso-20022-programme/timeline

In November 2020, Universal Confirmations will become mandatory and all banks using SWIFT will need to enhance their service offering to ensure this.

Failure to adopt gpi will not only result in sanctions from SWIFT, it will also reduce the level of service an institution is able to offer compared to its competitors and increases the risk of customers and correspondents switching to alternative institutions that can provide payment tracking.

The approach taken by some core system vendors to achieve gpi compliance might require significant software upgrades which can create compatibility risks, as well as being very costly and time consuming.

Alternatively, Aqua Global’s e2gen solution can be integrated to the existing version of an institutions core system quickly and cost effectively allowing both the seamless adoption of gpi as well as other SWIFT ISO 20022 mandatory changes.

It is fast becoming a mandatory requirement for financial institutions to be able to process ISO 20022 MX messages especially with the announcement from SWIFT in regard to withdrawing FIN messages in favour of their MX equivalent. The standard has been used for many years in initiatives such as SEPA and is expanding into various payment services globally.

How can Aqua Global assist?
Aqua Global’s messaging hub provides a means to generate native ISO 20022 messages directly from the bank’s core system. Alternatively, a message conversion framework is available to translate MT message formats into the new MX standards with ease and flexibility.

Benefits:
• All ISO 20022 standard changes are maintained on an ongoing basis
• Reduces risks
• Improves operation efficiency
• Mimimises change required to your existing internal systems

Click here to find out more information regarding the changes.

Aqua Global is very happy to announce that BFC Bank is live with Aqua’s e2gen suite to enhance the messaging capabilities of their core banking infrastructure. Aqua will be working alongside two of our partners, Blue Chip who are providing the hosted cloud service and ERI who have implemented the Oracle version of their OLYMPIC core system.

Aqua Global’s Sales Manager Gavin Kirkman comments ‘Aqua is delighted to work closely with BFC Bank and our business partners to provide a model which can work effectively for this exciting new bank. The model offered is both streamlined and scalable, in which we believe will enable the bank to offer a consistently positive experience to its customers whilst promising significant room for growth.’