The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) will be migrating to the ISO 20022 message standard for cross-border and correspondent banking payments (i.e. international funds transfers). This will start in November 2022 with full implementation by 2025.

SWIFT’s migration to ISO 20022 has implications for International Funds Transfer Instruction (IFTI) reporting, as AUSTRAC currently accepts reports in SWIFT MT message format and currently does not accept ISO 20022 message formats.

To reduce the impact this migration will have on meeting your IFTI reporting obligations, we will be working with our reporting entities, industry, the Reserve Bank of Australia and AUSPAYNET to update our systems to accept IFTI reporting in the ISO 20022 format.

We have started working with reporting entities affected by this change as we begin the planning phase of our ISO 20022 migration project.

What does this mean for your business?

For now, continue to report and submit IFTI reports as you do today.

We are aware of the SWIFT migration timelines, and understand that not every business will be ready to migrate at the same time.  AUSTRAC is committed to ensuring our system changes will support your business through the transition periods.

Next steps

We will provide regular updates to affected reporting entities on the progress and implementation of the ISO 20022 migration project solution.

If you would like updates in relation to AUSTRAC changes to accept ISO 20022 message formats, or if you have any questions, please get in touch with us at: ISO20022@austrac.gov.au.