The International Organisation for Standardisation says that their UNIversal Financial Industry message scheme (UNIFI) aims to provide the financial industry with a common platform for the development of messages in a standardised XML format. UNIFI is the acronym given to ISO 20022.
By adopting UNIFI, financial systems in all countries and territories will find it easier to communicate. The open nature of the standard will encourage a faster adoption of the standard than would normally be the case with a proprietary format.
Currently the UNIFI standard provides messages for Payments and Securities related activities with FX and Trade Services to follow. UNIFI messaging capabilities are designed to help future proof investments and provide products with an additional key selling feature.
Components within UNIFI are designed to simplify the development of SEPA and MiFID related applications and should help accelerate the adoption of these new standards.