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.
![Finastra](https://www.fintechfutures.com/files/2022/10/chart.jpg)
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.”