AUSTRALIA

Currency: Australian  dollar (AUD)

RTGS: RITS – The Reserve Bank Information and Transfer System

Message format currently in use: SWIFT MT

ISO migration planned? Timeline: Timeline: Starting April 2019, The Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Australian Payments Council (APC) issued a series of consultation papers concerning the ISO migration. Their intention was to ensure the migration project is undertaken in a timeframe that does not pose any risk to the payment system and that appropriately considers the broader objectives of long-term opportunities for the industry. In February 2020, the RBA and APC published their conclusion with a proposed timeline to complete this project by the end of 2024, before the completion of SWIFT’s cross-border payments migration and in line with the timeframes for international migrations.[1]

Governing body of the migration: Reserve Bank of Australia and the Australian Payments Council

Coexistence vs big Bang approach: the selected approach will allow the coexistence of the legacy formats with the ISO 20022 during a limited time. This will require all participants.

Like-for-like vs Enhanced content: the ISO messages will allow enhanced content and will follow as closely as possible the HVPS+ and CBPR+ guidelines.

Message format:
The message specifications are not available yet. However, some details have already been shared.

Structured data: will be supported as it is beneficial for straight-through processing and aligned with the CBPR+ and HVPS+ guidelines.

Enhanced content: will also be supported with the use of: payment purpose codes, enhances identity information, expanded remittance information, LEI number and IBAN.

[1]https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/consultations/202002-iso-20022-migration-for-the-australian-payments-system/pdf/iso-20022-migration-for-the-australian-payments-system-conclusions-paper.pdf