Following a meeting of the Swift Securities Committee, the company has stated the migration deadline for ISO 15022 will remain 16 November 2002.

The interbank messaging outfit will activate an ISO 7775 Message User Group (MUG) to ensure that existing levels of STP can be maintained while users that are not compliant complete the transition from ISO 7775 to ISO 15022. This group will be discontinued on 31 May 2003.

All Swift securities users will automatically be registered for participation in the ISO 7775 MUG but will have the option to opt out at any point before or during its lifetime. Only users that are not ISO 15022-compliant will be charged for participation in the MUG.

Charges will be based on a monthly non-compliance fee, which will increase over the lifetime of the MUG. Additionally, non-compliant users will incur a surcharge per ISO 7775 message sent. The level of compliance required will increase progressively during the lifetime of the MUG.

Francis Remacle, head of Swift’s securities industry division, says: "We hope that no user will need to pay for non-compliance. We are providing every support possible to ensure that this can be the case. Given that so many projects in the industry are being developed using the ISO 15022 standard, this has to be the priority."

For low volume users, Swift has made available a number of free services to help with the migration. These include:
* Quick Start computer-based training programme, which gives practical information and training on quick and simple ISO 15022 message creation;
* SwiftAlliance manual input guide, which demonstrates how to create securities settlement instructions in SwiftAlliance Access and Entry; and
* SwiftAlliance templates, which give ready-to-use, pre-formatted message templates in line with market practice templates.

Swift has developed the ISO 15022 Compliance Analyser for users who have still not started testing. They will be able to test ISO 15022 messages directly with Swift and measure message quality against pre-defined, best practice rules. It will allow users to complete end-to-end testing of applications.

The analyser is available to Swift customers from 12 August 2002.