Using ISO 20022 with Bacs

ISO 20022 is an international messaging standard being used increasingly in the UK. Bacs payments messages however use a format known as Standard 18. Therefore, in line with our focus on access, we've produced a range of information to help make it easier for organisations to use ISO 20022 with Bacs' services.

The translation guide provides a best practice framework for conversion between these two messaging formats, helping those payment originators, aggregators, payment service providers (PSPs) and software providers that use ISO 20022 for their payments processes, to access Bacs.

The translation specification provides both message and attribute level mappings for the messages used by Bacs payments processes. The accompanying schemas support this translation.

The above materials can be found in the Information Hub below or to the right of your screen. The current version of the translation specification and schemas covers all Bacs Standard 18 messages. An updated version will be published before the end of 2017 to include all supplementary messages.

Some organisations, for example those with international customers, may already have developed their own translations in this space, and we'd welcome dialogue with interested parties to share best practice. For further information please contact us.