The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) is a global cooperative owned by its members, and is the leading provider of secure financial messaging services worldwide. Banks and other financial institutions use SWIFT to send and receive information, including money transfer instructions, quickly, accurately, and securely.
SWIFT is represented in Sri Lanka by Lanka Financial Service Bureau Ltd (LFSBL), which provides SWIFT Shared Infrastructures of SWIFT Connectivity (SWIFT Alliance Gateway (SAG) and Messaging (SWIFT Alliance Access) for the SWIFT community, comprising the island’s banking and financial institutions.
The Company recently hosted a Business & Technical forum for SWIFT users, comprising the banking and financial community in Sri Lanka, in order to highlight changes in SWIFT Messaging in the new ISO 20022 format, Customer Security Control Framework (CSCF) and the relative cost advantages of the ‘SWIFT/LFSBL Shared Messaging Infrastructure’.
The forum also covered the migration from SWIFT MT (Message Type) to MX (Message XML), which is a significant upgrade in the financial messaging system aimed at enhancing efficiency, transparency, and interoperability. With the increasing complexity of financial transactions, and the need for richer data formats, SWIFT is transitioning to MX messages, which are based on ISO 20022 standards, and use XML (Extensible Markup Language).
This migration strategy involves three phases: readiness, coexistence, and full ISO adoption. In the readiness phase, where MT is the standard for cross-border and all other types of payments, users and vendors are trained to prepare their systems to comply with the MX standard. banks and financial institutions who use the SWIFT network are expected migrate to the new format by November 2025. During the co-existence phase, the SWIFT community can exchange both MT and MX messages, with a centralised translation service available for converting MX to MT. Finally, in the full ISO phase, SWIFT will withdraw support for MT messages, requiring all users to send and receive only MX messages.
This migration will result in a number of benefits to the global SWIFT community and for Sri Lanka, as it enhances security and compliance, ensuring that operations meet stringent standards. The system also boasts efficient support and maintenance, reliable and robust infrastructure, and compliance with SWIFT SIP (Shared Infrastructure Programme) standards, ensuring continuous adherence to stringent requirements.
As part of its overall service offering, LFSBL offers MX Migration Business Consultation, which includes:
Guidance for the migration from MT to MX
Resolve integration issues
Build and execute business test cases for foreign and local currency transactions
Transfer knowledge to technical and business teams
Provide go-live support for technical and business aspects
LFSBL 24/7 local Support
LFSBL was formed by the Sri Lanka SWIFT User Group, consisting of banks and finance companies, regulated by SWIFT and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), and has operated as a Corporate Cooperative Business model since 2007, saving a substantial amount of foreign exchange to the Nation.
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