Table of contents
What is in-flow translation
What is in-flow translation and why is it important?
As part of the migration to ISO 20022 for cross-border payments and reporting (CBPR+), Swift provides the in-flow translation service to allow for the receipt of both the MT and ISO 20022 formats – a multi-format message.
This approach facilitates the integration in the receiver's application environment in cases where not all applications can (yet) support the ISO 20022 MX format.
The difference with Transaction Manager and Swift Translator
What is the difference between the in-flow translation service, Transaction Manager, local translations with Swift Translator, and contingency processing for MT senders?
Swift provides support for interoperability between ISO 20022 MX and MT users through a messaging-based in-flow translation service and Transaction Manager.
The in-flow translation service is available on the FINplus service and creates an MT representation derived from the initial ISO 20022 message. The translation operation takes place during the message exchange at Swift and is based on the translation rules defined by the CBPR+ workgroup. In-flow translation processing takes place automatically based on the format preferences of the receiver as configured in the service.
Transaction Manager maintains full transaction data centrally at Swift and ensures that for in-scope data elements no data is lost, corrupted, or over-written during the transaction life cycle through the application of business validations and data integrity rules which were defined by the community. By safeguarding in-scope payment details along the transaction chain, Transaction Manager aims to improve end-to-end business transaction integrity and transparency. Transaction Manager processing takes place automatically on all eligible ISO 20022 messages sent on FINplus and MTs that belong to these transactions (MTs with the same UETR as a previously sent ISO 20022 message).
Swift Translator is a messaging format translation solution which enables customers to define, validate, and translate messages from and to any messaging format. The Swift Translator solution is a standalone product, which can be deployed locally and integrated in a flexible manner.
Swift is building selective and chargeable short term contingency measures to ensure business continuity for the community and a smooth exit from the coexistence period. Contingency processing for MT senders provides a limited conversion to ISO 20022 of critical MT instructions, ensuring receivers only receive ISO 20022. Read our dedicated FAQs category for more information.
What messages are in scope
What are the messages in scope of the in-flow translation service?
The scope of messages covered by the in-flow translation service is documented in the In-flow Translation Service Overview available on the Knowledge Centre.
All translation rules from ISO 20022 to MT approved by the CBPR+ working group are available and published on MyStandards.
In-flow translation after November 2025
Will in-flow translation for CBPR+ be provided after November 2025?
The in-flow translation service will continue after November 2025, as it effectively mitigates the risk of institutions not being able to process ISO 20022 instructions in all their systems.
About truncation: the embedded MT generated by in-flow translation may contain missing / truncated data. When a correspondent relays such an MT, it does not create any data truncation issues for the downstream correspondent banks as Transaction Manager picks up the MT, re-instates missing/truncated data from its transaction copy and delivers a clean ISO 20022 message in subsequent legs.
The cost of in-flow translation
What is the cost of the in-flow translation service?
To encourage institutions to support ISO 20022 natively, from 1 January 2026, the in-flow translation service will become chargeable for payment instruction messages, with charges automatically applied. The in-flow translation service is not included in Fixed Fee nor in Swift Essentials.
Swift may decide to increase these charges in the future with prior notice, to ensure continued momentum to complete the migration. Such review will be subject to Swift’s standard governance rules as well as the usual customer notification timelines.
Non-instruction messages remain free of charge.
Opting out of in-flow translation
Can I opt out of the in-flow translation service when my back office is ISO 20022 native?
You can disable (and re-enable) in-flow translation per FINplus service (that is, Pilot Current, Pilot Future or Live), per BIC8 and for the different eligible CBPR+ messages. For example, you can decide to disable translation for reporting messages only, or FINplus Pilot Future only.
Remember, in-flow translation is enabled by default. Customers who will not have opted out by end 2025 will be charged from 1 January 2026 for translated payment instruction messages they receive. The standard provisioning lead times apply for changing such configuration.
The constraints of MX to MT mapping
What are the constraints of MX to MT mapping?
The main constraint when translating MX to MT is either data truncation, with data being lost in the translation process as it is stored in a too short field to hold its entire length, or loss of data because the MX elements have no corresponding fields in the MT message. All translation rules from MX to MT approved by the CBPR+ working group are available and published on MyStandards.
The in-flow translation service provides translation results and indicators to identify where data are truncated due to size limitation (e.g., structured remittance information) or not translated due to lack of field equivalence in MT (e.g., ultimate debtor/creditor).
Industry approach of risk of data truncation
How is the industry approaching the risk of data truncation during the coexistence period? And how to access the rich data when the truncation indicator “+” is provided by the in-flow translation service?
To support banks’ implementation and limit the risk of data truncation due to market infrastructures or intermediaries operating with the legacy format, a CBPR+ Data Integrity Market Practice Guidance was published to explain how banks can identify truncation and exchange truncated or missing data where required through a bilateral Request For Information (RFI) process.
In-flow translation to MT 940/950
Why is the in-flow translation of camt.053 limited to MT 940 and excluding translation to MT 950?
Camt.053 is in scope of the in-flow translation service. Nothing in the camt.053 allows for distinguishing whether the message must be translated to an MT 940 or an MT 950. Since the MT 950 is mostly used by Market Infrastructures, the CBPR+ working group decided to only translate to the MT 940.
Translation libraries for local use
Will Swift continue to provide translation libraries for local use after CBPR+ coexistence?
Swift plans on maintaining the translation libraries between the MT and CBPR+ message formats for local usage beyond CBPR+ coexistence. Swift encourages native ISO 20022 adoption, but this should not be directly associated with the shelf life of our mapping libraries and translation services embedded in our on-premise interfaces.
In the future, should a decision be taken to end support for a mapping library, an 18-month notice will be provided as per the standard end-of-life process followed for all our products.
Note: translation libraries convert messages using like-for-like content. The purpose of the migration to ISO 20022 being to support rich information, this goal cannot be achieved by relying on translation libraries. Customers must eventually implement a native ISO 20022 solution in the back-office to support rich information data.
