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    • ISO 20022 for the High Value Clearing System

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    In March 2023, the High Value Clearing System (HVCS) adopted the ISO 20022 message standard and the Reserve Bank Information and Transfer System (RITS) began to support the settlement of HVCS payments using this standard.

    The HVCS is used by banks and other payment service providers with Exchange Settlement Accounts (ESAs) at the Reserve Bank of Australia to make high value payments. Payment messages are exchanged through the SWIFT Payment Delivery System (PDS) closed user group administered by AusPayNet and are submitted to RITS to settle across ESAs on a real-time gross settlement (RTGS) basis. AusPayNet is managing the industry’s transition to the ISO 20022 standard over a period of coexistence, during which the old HVCS message formats (proprietary SWIFT MT) and the new ISO 20022 messages can be used. The expectation is that the old format will be phased out by November 2024 for domestic payments, and by November 2025 for cross-border payments.

    The changes made to RITS to support the settlement of ISO 20022 HVCS payments include updates to the functionality for message validation and processing, the addition of ISO 20022 specific reject codes, and various RITS User Interface updates. RITS infrastructure and functionality related to the old HVCS MT format will be retired at the end of the co-existence period.

    For further information about the ISO 20022 HVCS Industry Migration Program, please visit the AusPayNet website.

    Information about the industry consultation that preceded the migration program is set out below, along with further relevant information about RITS.

    Industry consultation

    1. Issues Paper (April 2019)
    2. Responses and Options Paper (September 2019)
    3. Conclusions Paper (February 2020)

    RITS Advices

    Details of the upgrades made to the RITS Pre-Production and Production environments to support the HVCS ISO 20022 migration were disseminated in the RITS Advices listed below:

    1. RITS Advice 02/2022 RITS Upgrade for HVCS ISO 20022 - Pre-Prod Release 1 (March 2022)
    2. RITS Advice 07/2022 RITS Upgrade for HVCS ISO 20022 - Pre-Prod Release 2 (July 2022)
    3. RITS Advice 14/2022 RITS Upgrade for HVCS ISO 20022 - Prod Release (November 2022)

    RITS documentation

    The RITS/SWIFT Interface User Guide can be found here.