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The Bank of England is consulting on a new messaging standard for UK payments

The Bank of England has asked us to share this message with members.

Together with many other countries, the UK payments industry (CHAPS, Faster Payments, Bacs) is moving to the global standard for payments messaging: ISO 20022. This new messaging standard allows a greater amount of data to be sent in a clearly defined and flexible structure.

In June the Bank will be consulting on the contents of the message, which will be used by CHAPS, Faster Payments and Bacs, as well as how the Bank will transition to the new standard for CHAPS payments.

Better data in payments promises to deliver significant long-term benefits for the economy. A specific example of this is the impact the new standard could have on housing transactions.

What will this mean for housing transactions?

The Bank’s proposals contain a number of changes which could have a positive impact on housing transactions;

  • Prevention of Authorised Pushed Payments (APP) scams

Purpose codes have the potential to prevent Authorised Pushed Payments (APP) scams. If accounts must be authorised to receive payments identified as a “housing completion” this would prevent payments being sent to fraudulent accounts.

  • Prioritisation of housing payments

The use of purpose codes would enable the identification of housing payments. Being able to identify these time critical payments would allow them to be prioritised in the event of an operational outage.

  • Improved payment processing speed

The data in ISO 20022 messages will be more structured. This will make the message more machine readable and therefore reduce the need for manual intervention.

The Bank wants to hear from you.

Getting the design and approach to implementation right is critical to success of the new standard, so we are now seeking views from a wide range of organisations.

For more information, or to register your organisation, please visit the Bank’s website

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