Standards body backs new real-time payment messaging guidelines

The guidelines, which apply to interbank payments, are the first in a series of new payment message guidelines being developed to facilitate real-time payments.

Payments associations, payment service providers, clearing houses and regulators were among the groups represented on the Real-Time Payments Group (RTPG) that developed the guidelines. Payments UK were among the bodies engaged in the project.

Financial services and technology law expert Angus McFadyen of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that plans for a real-time European payment system are based on a consistent messaging format and that the ISO 20022 standard on which the new guidelines are based "will form a core part" of those arrangements.

Maurice Cleaves, chief executive of Payments UK, said: "The approval by the ISO 20022 Registration Management Group of the new ISO 20022 message guidelines, which Payments UK helped facilitate, marks another important milestone on the journey to delivering greater efficiency in payments." 

"Message guidelines for real-time payments in ISO 20022 have been developed to reflect the global nature of financial services. The UK payments industry has an excellent track record of leading in this work. Both the industry and its customers benefit from well designed and consistently applied standards. This critical work maintains the UK’s position as a leader on the global stage," he said.

Payments UK said that the RTPG hopes to develop another set of message guidelines "necessary for customer-to-bank real-time payments" by the end of the summer.  

Enhancing the information attached to payments is one of four things that need to happen to ensure the UK's payments market remains "world class", Payments UK said last year.