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Across all Switzerland the banks are preparing for the launch of the QR-bill. This autumn the broad communication really gets off the ground. The best way to prepare business clients is to use the most persuasive arguments. For example those mentioned by the head of accounts payable of a major supplier in the automotive and electronics industry in an interview.

Readiness statuses of banks with regard to communication, client interfaces and infrastructure.

Zewo, the Swiss charity foundation, informs its member organizations about the handling of the QR-bill.

The newly structured and extended list of FAQs provides answers to the most common questions about the QR-bill before its introduction in mid-2020.

The communication matrix provides an overview of all the communication means of the financial center for the QR-bill. It filters and classifies the publications according to target groups (financial institutions, invoice issuers, etc.) with explanations and direct access to the respective information.

On its SME Portal, the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO explains the most important aspects of the QR-bill introduction.

Since last November, templates are available in a zip file which allow the creation of the black corner marks for the fields "Amount" and "Payable by" in the payment part of the QR-bill. These have now been supplemented with corner mark templates for the fields "Payable by" and "Amount" in the receipt and for the scissors symbol.

Currently, the compilation consists of more than 20 ERP providers featuring the QR-bill.

A test Bank Master in Excel and ASCII formats is available. It supports banks and providers of accounts receivable and interbank software when testing the QR-bill type with QR-IBAN and QR reference. This test Bank Master must not be used productively.

Invoice recipients in Switzerland must be able to pay QR-bills from 30 June 2020. A 2.5-minute clip exemplifies how companies can prepare for it, and what the benefits are for them.

The right layout pays off. The new Style Guide details the layout rules and recommendations for the payment part with Swiss QR Code and for the receipt.

The central validation platform of the Swiss financial center supports software producers in validating data structure and image files for Swiss QR Codes on the QR-bill.

The rules published on 15 November 2018 in German for producing and processing the payment part with Swiss QR Code and receipt are now also available in English and French.

The QR-bill's design is definitely fixed. Having taken into account the needs of all market participants, the new implementation guidelines are published. The time until the first QR-bill is sent on 30 June 2020 must be used to make the technical adaptations at banks, software providers and also corporate clients.

Zewo, the Swiss charity foundation, informs its member organizations about the actual state of the ISO 20022 changeover.

In the latest edition of its online magazine “insight #3.18”, the Swiss Bankers Association accentuate that in the last month, the conversions to ISO 20022 have been increasing strongly and steadily – not least thanks to the excellent advices from banks.

On its SME Portal, the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO reports on the ISO 20022 standard changeover status at the SMEs and the on-going consultation on the QR-bill.

The public consultation process by PaymentStandards.CH to the planned revision of the Swiss Implementation Guidelines QR-bill is running from today until 23 September 2018. The revision of eight points is aimed at adapting the Guidelines to the current market requirements.

The Swiss financial center set itself the goal of harmonization of payments and to make them more efficient and economical for all market participants. With the successful introduction of ISO 20022 among corporate customers, it has come an important step closer to that goal.

Immobilia, the monthly publication of the Swiss Real Estate Association SVIT informs its 2000 real estate member companies about the harmonization of Swiss payments.

The responsible bodies of the financial center will communicate the exact launching date of the QR-bill in Switzerland the middle of this year. The implementation of the ISO 2002 standard is the prerequisite for a smooth data transmission in the QR-bill from a technical point of view. All banks changed over their systems to ISO 20022 last year. The switchover of business customers' accounting software to ISO 20022 by 30 June 2018 is the next important milestone. In order to give customers, software partners and banks enough time for the technical preparation of the QR-bill after this milestone, the QR-bill will not be launched before mid-2019.

Swiss television SRF 1 will broadcast the business magazine program ECO on Monday, 29 January at 10.25 pm, featuring the current state of harmonization of payment traffic in Switzerland.

On its SME Portal, the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO documents the experiences of SMEs changing over to the ISO 20022 standard.