Harmonization of payments: Advantageous for you too!

Harmonization of payments: Advantageous for you too!

"What will this migration to ISO 20022 do for my company – except for causing plenty of work?" Is that how you think too? The advantages may not be immediately visible, but the changeover makes payments simpler and more economical for all participants.

This will also provide concrete advantages to your company in the medium term.

Faster availability of funds, fewer costs

The unambiguous identification of the account number in IBAN format significantly reduces the number of entry fields, enquiries and returns by banks. This, in turn, reduces your administrative work.

Reduction of IT investment & maintenance costs

Standardized payment orders and status messages at all Swiss financial institutions reduce the complexity of your software solutions. This relieves your IT budget.

Innovative and customer-friendly functionalities

Standards allow for a better integration of payments' monitoring into modern digital media.

Standardized validation of payments

A consistent validation of your file submissions at all Swiss financial institutions increases processing quality. This also saves you time.

Enhanced automation of your processes

The end-to-end payment process made possible through common standards enables the automatic recognition of a payment. That makes your company more productive.

New QR-bill enables improved automated scanning

On the new QR-bill contents are always structured the same way through the common standards used by the banks and PostFinance, and can be conveniently scanned by means of the QR code. This means that you can enter payments even more easily.

Easier implementation of regulatory requirements

The new ISO 20022 standard simplifies implementation of regulatory provisions (replacement of the ISR procedure). This ensures security.

ISO 20022 as an opportunity for your company

The changeover to ISO 20022 offers the opportunity for you not only to analyze payment traffic in your company, but to review your process and system landscape.

This offers your company the opportunity to make improvements to your:

  • Payments processes (accounts receivable and accounts payable accounting)
  • Cash management
  • Working capital management
  • Enterprise resource planning; keyword: straight-through processing.

Many software producers and IT service providers are also furthering the development of their ERP solutions within the scope of the ISO 20022 switchover and thus offering corresponding service packages. Check with your contact partners to find out what their solution approach is and take advantage of it!

Everything depends on the software in your company!

Crucial for the migration to ISO 20022 is the type of software you use in your company:

Do you use standardized software solutions?

Such standardized solutions are developed for bookkeeping, invoicing, payments and more. If you use standard software, then we recommend that you do the following:

  1. Contact your software partner and inquire about their migration schedule.
  2. Contact your representative at your bank and discuss in particular the migration time window, possible ways of proceeding, what they offer in terms of testing options and any potential improvement possibilities.
  3. Plan and budget the update or even switch to more appropriate software.
  4. Undertake the necessary configurations (e.g. banking connection, account number, master data).
  5. Test the new functionalities on the SIX validation platform or, if offered, on the test platform provided by the financial institution where you keep your account. 

Do you use individual software solutions?

If you have proprietary solutions in use, then you must make them ISO 20022-compatible. Your IT department and/or external software partner should support you in the adaptation of your customary software solution for ISO 20022. Please:

  1. Contact your IT department or software partner (they will implement the ISO requirements individually).
  2. Launch a project to carry out the implementation in a structured manner.
  3. Discuss it with your bank representative.
  4. Conduct an impact analysis and define your requirements.
  5. Plan the implementation and testing sufficiently early.
  6. Test your configuration comprehensively on the SIX validation platform or, if offered, on the test platform provided by the financial institution where you keep your account.

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Harmonization of Swiss payments

What companies need to know.