SWIFT announced today that 94 per cent of securities message traffic had migrated to ISO 15022 by the 16 November 2002 deadline.
“The industry has responded to the challenge, showing a collective responsibility and a commitment to meeting the migration deadline,” says Francis Remacle, head of SWIFT’s Securities Industry Division. “We should all be proud of this achievement, particularly given that in August the migration rate was at 35 per cent. Our focus now will shift to ensuring that the benefits of ISO 15022 are maximised for all securities players.”
For those users still to migrate, SWIFT has activated an ISO 7775 Message User Group (MUG) to ensure that operational risk is mitigated. The MUG will be discontinued on 31 May 2003.
All users of SWIFT securities message types were automatically registered for inclusion in the MUG, in which ISO 7775 message types can be exchanged between sender and receiver. Prior to its activation more than 1,000 users had opted out of the MUG, choosing to conduct business operations in ISO 15022 only.
SWIFT, which is pleasantly surprised by the scale of the migration, promises that it will continue its efforts toward ensuring a successful migration for those users still to make the change “in order to minimise any potential MUG charges.”
SWIFT accelerated its efforts to support the migration to ISO 15022 in March 2002, when concern began to emerge that some in the industry would not meet the deadline. At the time, a cross-functional team was appointed to monitor progress and provide direct customer support where needed.
SWIFT developed a number of test and training facilities to enable users to move forward with preparations when counterparty test windows were unavailable. It also mounted a communications campaign to increase awareness, initiating a global customer calling programme to establish migration plans for those customers that had shown no ISO 15022 activity. Thousands of customers were contacted directly by SWIFT under that programme.
“The dramatic progress made since earlier this year demonstrates what our industry is capable of doing when it sets its mind to it,” says Leonard H. Schrank, chief executive officer of SWIFT. “Someone wrote that only SWIFT could have made this happen. I agree!”