Harmonisation of Swiss payment transactions
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Uniform standards for digital payment processing
The Initiative for the Harmonisation of Swiss Payment Transactions was set up to enable Swiss payment systems to meet the challenges of digital processing, from the invoicing party through the payer to the account-managing payment institution. The Initiative is entering its implementation phase since 2018.
DTA files to be replaced by ISO 20022 standard
By 1 July 2018 the old DTA-based delivery formats have been replaced by the new ISO 20022 standard. ISO 20022 is an international standard that plays an important and ever-expanding role in electronic data exchange within the financial sector throughout the world but most notably in Europe. This forward-looking technology will be a crucial component in the transition to fully digitised payment transactions.
Replacement of red and orange payment slips
The new QR-bills will be available alongside the familiar red and orange payment slips starting July 2020. Processing has been simplified for clients and financial institutions because all information is coded in the QR code. Additional details about the QR-bill can be found here.
QRR transfer
The QRR transfer service will be introduced alongside BESR transfers starting on 30 June 2020. This means you can view an electronic list of all incoming payments every day. Interested? We would be pleased to set up QRR transfer for you. To do so, please contact your client advisor.
What will change for corporate clients?
- Since 1 July 2018 payment orders must be delivered as pain.001 message.
- The QR-bill launch will not occur before mid-2020.
- Transaction notifications and reporting will likewise switch to ISO 20022.
What is to be done?
Check your master data in accounts receivable and accounts payable management and consistently change the account number to the IBAN format today, also for your payroll transactions. Check your business documents for the exclusive use of the IBAN. Check with your software partner of your financial software whether your software processes the electronic account reports (SWIFT MT940/MT942) correctly when providing the account number in IBAN format.
