Westpac New Zealand taps Finastra to accelerate ISO 20022 compliance
The New Zealand arm of Aussie banking heavyweight Westpac has tapped Finastra for its ISO 20022 payments tech.
Westpac NZ taps Finastra for ISO 20022 compliance
Finastra says the bank has deployed its technology to utilise the benefits of the data-rich MX messaging standard while ensuring backward-compatibility with legacy messaging formats “without needing to upgrade its entire payments ecosystem”.
Westpac New Zealand head of payments John Forrester says: “With ISO 20022 set to replace the legacy MT financial messaging formats, we were eager to find a fast route to compliance and leverage the richer data offered by the new MX format, while ensuring continuity for existing applications.”
ISO 20022 is a new global standard for the exchange of financial messages, including payments, and offers greater interoperability between financial systems, enhanced straight-through processing and improved data quality.
Banks and customers benefit from greater efficiency and transparency, faster and more cost-effective transactions and the potential to harness new services such as real-time payments and enhanced fraud detection.
Finastra managing director for payments in Asia Pacific, Arun Kini, says: “The move from the pervasive MT formats and other proprietary standards to ISO 20022 has the potential to provide a step-change in levels of automation, transparency, interoperability and data insights.”
