FPS migration to ISO 20022 – The solution right now

The UK’s Faster Payments scheme have announced that they plan to migrate its existing ISO 8583 message protocol to the internationally recognised ISO 20022 standard.

This is an important step for this format and affects the worldwide usage of this standard.  The idea is to make payments more streamlined by using the ISO 20022 model allowing new participants to join and communicate with more ease than their current model which is based on the ISO 8583 standard and would not only replace the current FPS standard but also the BACS standard.

To aid this migration the FPS released an interactive standards model which allows developers to map from FPS and BACS to ISO 20022

http://www.fasterpayments.org.uk/access-payments/FP-ISO20022-Standards-Library

Transformer already has pre-built libraries that include the IS08583 (including FPS and BACS) and ISO 20022 and we have created a pre-built mapping library that allows users to communicate via these messages to allow the seamless migration to this new world view by the Faster Payment Scheme.

Why build something when you can leverage a world-renowned solution right now?

ISO8583 Library (with FPS)

Transformer’s library captures every detail of each ISO 8583 variant (and UK FPS) down to a sub-field level and presents it in a business-friendly way. It is available for immediate deployment – ideal for real-world project needs.

Interpretation of the bitmap is built into the library, so when an ISO 8583 message is presented to Transformer it will immediately show the user which fields are relevant via the GUI and apply the relevant field level validation which applies for that particular message.

Trace appreciates that the use of these message formats is often subject to bilateral variation and redefinition and as with all of our products the library can be tailored to specific needs if required. We have found this is particularly useful when dealing with the UK FPS.

Having such a strong yet flexible representation of the data format will give you a real head start in meeting your business objectives.

ISO 20022 Library

Transformer’s libraries capture all of the details of the ISO 20022 standard in a business-friendly way, making them ideal for real-world project needs. Transformer’s libraries provide user-friendly names and full descriptions for all fields, components, and data range values, and fully supports cross-validation rules.

ISO 8583 <> ISO 20022 Library

Building on Transformer’s powerful capabilities we provide the set of both ISO20022 and ISO8583 message definitions, along with completely realised mappings for the ISO20022/ISO8583 pairs. These mappings use a range of special mapping functions created by Trace Financial to handle the conversion of the most complex message components.

A complete solution to this coexistence has to be both customisable, to address the specific needs of each organisation, and maintainable, to allow for future changes in the standards.

Transformer’s ISO8583<>ISO20022 mappings are easy to customise and maintain. Transformer requires no coding and keeps technical formatting such as tags in the background. This means that the analyst or developer can design and build changes to the mappings directly, with no error-prone hand-off to a separate coding team.

For ISO8583<>ISO20022 coexistence Transformer offers a complete and robust solution that is available today.