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Swift Standards Infopaper Bicimplementation 57395 PDF
Swift Standards Infopaper Bicimplementation 57395 PDF
ISO 9362
BIC implementation:
changes and impact
Implementation of the
revised ISO 9362 Standard
(BIC) will be completed at
the end of the transition
period in November
2018. This paper provides
information to allow users
to carefully plan and
budget for systems or
process changes, if any, to
be prepared for the end of
this transition period.
Contents ISO 9362 – BIC implementation:
changes and impact
Background ISO 9362 – BIC implementation:
changes and impact
Country code 7 Users of the SWIFT network use BICs as the address for messaging and
Test & Training BIC (T&T) 7 as an identifier within SWIFT messages sent over the network.
During transition period 8
A revised edition of the standard was approved by ISO in January 2014,
New connectivity attribute 8
the implementation of which requires changes by the RA and the SWIFT
New non-connected BIC 8 users. The implementation of the revised standard includes a transition
New connected BIC 8 period that has started in January 2015 and will end in November 2018.
Existing non-connected BIC: change of connectivity status 9
This paper provides more details about the areas that are not impacted
Exceptional cases 9 by this revision, the changes resulting from the implementation of the
BIC data record 10 revised standard, and the potential impacts from each of the changes
Type of business party (Financial / Non-Financial) 11
during and after the implementation transition period. SWIFT users
should investigate the impacts of the revision and where necessary take
Party prefix 12
the appropriate measures before the transition period ends in November
Party suffix 13 2018.
Data management 13
In addition to the standard, ISO defined BIC registration procedures that
After the transition period 14
provide guidelines for the registration, publication and maintenance of
Non-connected BIC 14 BICs issued in accordance with ISO 9362. It describes the core roles
New non-connected BIC 14 and responsibilities of the different stakeholders participating in the
Existing non-connected BIC: change of connectivity status 15
registration, publication and maintenance of the BIC.
Existing connected BIC: change of connectivity status 15
The revised edition of the standard is published by ISO on
BIC publication 16 www.iso.org and the final version of the BIC registration procedures
Summary 17 document is published on www.swift.com. This new registration
procedures document complements the new version of the
Appendix 18
SWIFT BIC Policy also published on swift.com.
Flow chart 19
Metadata attributes 21
2 3
ISO 9362 – BIC implementation:
changes and impact
Standard revision ISO 9362 – BIC implementation:
changes and impact
an = alpha-numeric
BIC format 4an 2a 2an [3an] a = alphabetic
[ ] = optional
4 5
Implementation approach ISO 9362 – BIC implementation:
changes and impact
Areas not impacted ISO 9362 – BIC implementation:
changes and impact
for users
This paper provides the details An initial impact analysis involving a broad During this long transition period, users should In this section, we detail items that SWIFT, as RA, has no plan to issue BICs with
representation of SWIFT users, software also consider evolving business requirements numeric characters in the first 4 characters.
about each of the changes vendors and service vendors from different and natural replacement of legacy systems
are not impacted by the revised
and their impacts. From a countries concluded that the perspective on which can also minimize the impacts of the standard and for which nothing If applications have implemented restrictions
user perspective, as the BIC is the changes and the related costs differ within standard revision. changes. on the allowed characters, it would be good
each organization depending on the business practice to remove this restriction at the
propagated in many systems; domain, the installed systems and the desire occasion of a software update to respect the
effort is required to identify these Existing BIC
to integrate and benefit from the enriched standard specification of 4 alpha-numeric
systems, analyze the potential information.
The revision of the standard and the new
characters.
impacts and take corrective To allow users of BIC to move smoothly
registration procedures protect the legacy
measures, where needed, before implementation and all existing BICs are kept Country code
to the new standard edition and minimize
unchanged.
November 2018. unnecessary disruption to legacy
The notion of country code remains
arrangements, ISO approved a nearly 4-year
unchanged and included in position 5 and 6
transition period that started in January 2015. BIC structure
of the BIC. To facilitate database management
and instead of deriving the country information
The structure of the BIC remains unchanged.
from the BIC itself, SWIFT has introduced
The BIC is an 8 character code, now defined
additional attributes in the SWIFTRef
as ‘business party identifier’ consisting of the
directories where applicable to also list the
party prefix (4 alpha-numeric), the country
Dec Jan Nov country name and country code.
2015
code (2 alpha) and the party suffix (2 alpha-
2013 2018 The list of country codes is defined in the ISO
numeric). The branch identifier remains a 3
3166 standard that establishes a universally
character optional element of the BIC known
applicable code for the representation of the
as the branch code and used to identify
names of the principal administrative divisions
specific locations, departments, services or
RA of countries and territories. The country code
units of the same business party.
identifies the country or geographical territory
in which the organization is located. It consists
Alpha-numeric BIC of two alphabetical characters. The country
Users code must reflect the geographical location of
ISO 9362 in its previous editions already the registered address of the organization.
allowed for alpha-numeric value of the first 4
— Standard — New processes — End of characters of the BIC. In its implementation,
approved — Enhanced directories transition period SWIFT has been more restrictive and has
Test & Training BIC (T&T)
— Start of transition period always applied only alphabetic values. This
Test & Training (T&T) is a specific feature of
continues after the implementation of the
the SWIFTNet FIN service. BICs ending with
revised standard as well. As the number of
a ‘0’ – zero, in position 8 are addresses only
potential combinations of 4 alpha characters
used for the T&T service. These addresses
adds up to 456,976, with about 110,000 BICs
are not published in the directory of BICs. This
currently issued, we are obviously not short of
convention will not change and only addresses
combinations.
used for the T&T service will end with ‘0’ in
position 8.
To allow users of BIC to
move smoothly to the
new standard edition and The revision of the
minimize unnecessary standard and the new
disruption to legacy registration procedures
arrangements, ISO protect the legacy
approved a nearly 4-year implementation and all
transition period that existing BICs are kept
started in January 2015. unchanged.
6 7
During transition period ISO 9362 – BIC implementation:
changes and impact
ISO 9362 – BIC implementation:
changes and impact
SWIFT, as Registration Authority, New connectivity attribute During the transition period, the new attribute 3. Existing non-connected BIC: change of connectivity status
remains consistent with the information
has implemented the revised Until the end of the transition period, the that is contained in position 8 of the BIC. From the start of the transition period, this process has been improved to introduce a co-
standard at the end of January position 8 of the BIC determines if the BIC The attribute will also provide connectivity existence period of 1 month for the old non-connected BIC and the new connected BIC. This
2015 which marked the start of is connected or not to the SWIFTNet FIN information related to the SWIFTNet network improvement prevents the overnight deletion of the old non-connected BIC and its immediate
network. If position 8 equals “1”, the BIC is services, such as InterACT (IA) and FileAct replacement by the new connected BIC, which resulted in operational issues for both the
the transition period. To mitigate not connected, any other character (except (FA), in addition to the SWIFTNet FIN service organization itself and for the community of users.
the operational impacts on the ‘0’) denotes connection to SWIFTNet FIN. If (FIN).
users of this standard and to allow an organization changes network connectivity BIC Date Event Type FIN IA FA
status to SWIFTNet FIN, the existing BIC is An improved BIC allocation process has been
users to implement the changes deleted and replaced by a new BIC with a implemented from the start of the transition ABCDBEB1 01/09/2012 BIC ISSUED N N N
at their own pace, the transition different character in position 8. to eliminate aspects of the process that ABCDBEBB 01/03/2017 BIC ISSUED Y N N
period will end in November 2018. are known to cause operational issues for
ABCDBEB1 01/04/2017 BIC EXPIRED N N N
This convention will be withdrawn at the end users of the standard. The new process and
A flow chart illustrating the creation of a new of the transition period. the changes are described in the following
BIC during and after the transition period is sections.
SWIFT has introduced a new data attribute in 4. Exceptional cases
provided in appendix.
SWIFTRef directories to indicate the network
connectivity status of each BIC (see BIC In some exceptional cases such as an organization with a connected BIC losing its banking
publication section below). license, or a market authority, regulator or central bank requesting SWIFT to disconnect an
organization from its network, the current process requires the immediate removal of the BIC
Connectivity status FIN IA FA BIC example from the SWIFT network and the deletion of the connected BIC.
No SWIFTNet FIN, No IA & FA N N N ABCDBEB1 This process is improved to allow for the continued availability of a non-connected BIC for the
SWIFTNet IA & FA but No SWIFTNet FIN N Y Y ABCDBEB1 organization if the organization continues to exist. The connected BIC is expired on request at
the time of the event and replaced by a non-connected BIC. This process will continue until the
SWIFTNet FIN, IA & FA Y Y Y ABCDBEBB end of the transition period.
From the start of the transition period, this process has been improved and simplified: the
new connected BIC is only created when the organization is connected to the network. This
improvement prevents the confusion caused by the historical process of adding and quickly
deleting a non-connected BIC upon the creation of a new connected BIC.
8 9
ISO 9362 – BIC implementation: ISO 9362 – BIC implementation:
changes and impact changes and impact
BIC data record The ISO 9362 Registration Procedures For existing BICs, the RA has collected all Type of business party (Financial / 2. Non-financial institution (NFIN)
document accompanying the standard data available to SWIFT to populate the Non-Financial)
The new edition of the standard introduces the describes the roles and responsibilities of the data attributes in the BIC data record and Organization that does not meet the criteria
1
notion of a BIC data record with a minimal set stakeholders intervening in the registration is requesting the BIC owners to complete, defined above, primarily established to offer
Since the 2009 revision of the standard, BICs
of mandatory reference data attributes: and maintenance of the BIC data record: the validate or update the information attached goods or perform services other than financial
are attributed to financial and to non-financial
‘applicant’ is the organization requesting the to all of their existing BICs. It is important that services. Some non-financial institutions may
institutions. The 2014 revision of the standard
• The full legal name of the Business Party registration of a BIC for itself or for a third- BIC owners understand their responsibility have secondary financial activities such as
now also clearly defines the two institution
• The registered address of the Business party. regarding the accuracy of the information providing consumer credit to their customers,
types2:
Party attached to their BICs like they expect other or treasury functions.
• The status of the Business Party: financial The applicant is responsible for the BIC owners to maintain their respective BICs However, such corporations will be classified
1. Financial institution (FIIN)
institution or non-financial institution correctness and completeness of the and related information. If every BIC owner on the basis of their main activity in the non-
(see below) information attached to the BIC and remains maintains its own information, the whole financial sector.
Organization that is principally engaged in
• The date of publication of the new record ultimately responsible for the ongoing community of BIC users will benefit from high
financial intermediation and/or in auxiliary
• The date of last update of the record accuracy of its data record which it should quality data on their counterparties which is The applicant must provide this information
financial activities. Typically, the activity of
• The date of expiry of the record (when update every time it is needed. essential in the financial crime compliance, at registration of the BIC and SWIFT has
a financial institution is the acquisition of
applicable) KYC, AML and due diligence processes. introduced this new reference data attribute in
financial assets while incurring liabilities on
• An indication if the record is self- The RA is responsible for processing the the directory. For existing BICs, the attribute
its own account by engaging in financial
maintained. registration requests and publishing the BIC has been allocated based on information
transactions in a market; for the purposes
data records. As part of the implementation of known to SWIFT. It is the responsibility of the
of providing payment, securities, banking,
When a branch identifier is present, the branch the updated standard, SWIFT has introduced BIC owner, as described above, to validate
financial, insurance, or investment services or
element shall include at least the description enhanced tools to facilitate the maintenance of this information and provide corrections as
activities.
of the organizational unit of the Business Party the records and remind users at least once a necessary.
such as a specific location, department, or year of their obligation to review the accuracy
A financial organization shall either be:
service identified by the branch identifier and of the BIC data records. This information is consistent with the SWIFT
• (i) licensed by or (ii) authorised by or
its operational address. User Categories; for more information on the
(iii) registered with a Financial Market
SWIFT User Categories, please consult the
Regulator, and is subject to supervision
SWIFT User Handbook on swift.com.
by a Financial Market Regulator
• or an international, supranational,
intergovernmental or national
governmental body, or institution that,
as a main activity, engages in payment,
securities, banking, financial, insurance,
or investment services or activities
(including central banks).
responsibility regarding
the accuracy of the
information attached to
their BICs like they expect
other BIC owners to
maintain their respective
BICs and related 2
All examples shown in this document are for
1
A detailed field list is provided in appendix information. illustration purposes only
10 11
ISO 9362 – BIC implementation: ISO 9362 – BIC implementation:
changes and impact changes and impact
Party prefix Anomalies include the following: Party suffix Data management
Historically, once the Party Prefix (first 4 • “Bank of New York Mellon” is still using Currently, position 7 of the BIC determines The BIC data record also introduces new
characters of the BIC), previously known the BICs IRVTUS33 from the time the the location of the BIC in a particular country. metadata attributes to facilitate database
as Institution Code, was allocated to an organization was named “Irving Trust In a country spanning over multiple time management for the users of the BIC.
organization, SWIFT reserved that code Bank” and MELNUS33 from the “Mellon zones, each character can define a different
for that organization or group of affiliated Bank”. time zone. If an organization moves location These attributes complement the modification
organizations. In practice, not all organizations • Royal Bank of Scotland and ABN Amro to a different time zone within the same flags applied in the SWIFTRef directories:
use this unique code for their group of Bank own separate legal entities that use country, the existing BIC should normally be • A = Added
affiliated organizations worldwide. Moreover, the first 4 characters ABNA, sometimes deleted and replaced by a new BIC with the • M = Modified
the dynamic nature of financial markets and, even in the same country. appropriate location code. • D = Deleted
more specifically, mergers, acquisitions, re- • U = Unchanged
structuring or divestments, have highlighted The revision of the standard introduces the With the revision of the standard, the
the limitations of this rule. notion of meaningless party prefix replacing location code is re-defined as a ‘party suffix’ The new attributes are:
the ‘Institution code’. From the start of the without any specific meaning. The SWIFTRef • The date of publication of the new
Deriving the organization owning the BIC from transition period, SWIFT has implemented directories now contain an attribute to indicate record,
the code itself is unreliable. Aggregation of new rules related to the first 4 characters of where the institution is located and to which • The date of last update of the record,
exposure at an organization or group level is the BIC: time zone it refers. • The date of expiry of the record (when
not possible through the value of the BICs. applicable),
• For new BIC registration by an • The type of event of the record
Following a corporate action event, for organization already identified with a BIC (e.g. name changed, connectivity
example, organizations often do not change or an affiliated organization, SWIFT still changed,…),
their BICs due to the high costs involved. reserves the usage of an existing party • An indication if the record is self-
Such costs are impacting the whole prefix to these organizations. This legacy maintained.
community and beyond as changing a BIC rule is limited to existing BIC owners. If
implies a very extensive communication and they wish to preserve this value, no other These attributes will be generated
related system changes. organization will be allowed to use the automatically by the SWIFT database
same code. management system. The main difference with
• For new BIC registration from an the existing modification flags is that a BIC
organization not yet identified by a data record will no longer be deleted when a
BIC, the party prefix is allocated at the BIC ceases to exist, but, instead, the record
discretion of the RA. The code does will be marked ‘expired’ with a date of expiry.
not have a mnemonic or acronym value This will allow users of the data to maintain
anymore. historical information on BICs.
12 13
After the transition period ISO 9362 – BIC implementation:
changes and impact
ISO 9362 – BIC implementation:
changes and impact
The end of the transition period Non-connected BIC 2. Existing non-connected BIC: change of This means that there will not be a BIC with
connectivity status “1” in position 8 connected to SWIFTNet FIN.
has been set with ISO approval Following user consultation, it is estimated that
After the transition period, users should
for November 2018. On purpose, only rely on the network connectivity status All existing non-connected BICs created this significantly reduces technical impacts
the end of the transition period attribute introduced in the SWIFTRef before November 2018 (still with “1” in from the implementation of the standard
directories and no longer compute the position 8) that connect to SWIFTNet FIN revision.
coincides with the 2018 SWIFT will continue to be requested to register a
connectivity status from the intelligence
Standards Release (SR 2018) to contained in position 8 of the BIC. new BIC. To minimize operational impacts,
enable users that would still have the process introduced at the start of the
1. New non-connected BIC transition period will continue to exist. The
to make changes in their systems two BICs will co-exist for a period of 1 month
at the end of the transition period All existing non-connected BICs will be after which the old non-connected BIC will be
to bundle them with the changes preserved but the Registration Authority will expired.
related to SR 2018 and reduce the no longer assign new BICs ending with “1” in
position 8 of the BIC. BIC Date Name Event Type FIN
related project overhead.
ABCDBEB1 01/09/2012 Alpha Bank s.a BIC ISSUED N
This means that after November 2018 there
After the transition period, some changes will exist BICs that are not connected to ABCDBEBB 01/04/2019 Alpha Bank s.a BIC ISSUED Y
could still have operational impacts and it is SWIFTNet FIN but that will not end with ‘1’ in ABCDBEB1 01/05/2019 Alpha Bank s.a BIC EXPIRED N
important that users assess these impacts in position 8 and users can thus no longer rely
due time. The main impact could most likely on the value of position 8 of the BIC.
be related to the system behavior related to However, if the existing non-connected BIC is
the notion of non-connected BICs. created after the end of the transition period,
then position 8 will not be a “1” and this BIC
An example of a high-level project timeline will remain unchanged upon connection to
with backwards planning could be: SWIFTNet FIN, only the connectivity attribute
• Deadline = Nov 2018 will be modified.
• Testing and implementation = 2018
• Development = H2 2017 BIC Date Name Event Type FIN
• Identification of impacted systems and
ABCDBEBB 01/05/2019 Alpha Bank s.a BIC ISSUED N
requirements specifications = H1 2017
BIC CONNECTIVITY
ABCDBEBB 01/12/2019 Alpha Bank s.a Y
CHANGED
BIC Date Name FIN
WXYZUS31 01/05/2016 Mybank Inc N 3. Existing connected BIC: change of
JKLMGB22 01/05/2019 Big Bank Ltd. N connectivity status
ABCDBEBB 01/05/2019 Alpha Bank s.a. Y After the end of the transition period, only
the connectivity status attribute will be
modified.
14 15
BIC Publication ISO 9362 – BIC implementation:
changes and impact
Summary ISO 9362 – BIC implementation:
changes and impact
To minimize impact on users, the The (legacy) BIC directory will be All BIC Plus subscribers get, by default, What has not changed What has changed
decommissioned in November 2018. BIC access both to BIC Plus and BIC Directory
existing BIC directory has not directory users should therefore take the 2018 files.
been modified and will continue to opportunity of the transition period to get • Existing connected and • BIC owners are responsible for
be produced until the end of the familiar with the notion of attributes as Technical specifications for the BIC Plus are non-connected BICs are not the maintenance of the data
transition period. described above and adapt their systems, available from the SWIFTRef download portal. changed related to their BICs and must
if needed, to use the information contained
in the data attributes instead of deriving For the SWIFTAlliance users, SWIFT has • Structure of the BIC is not keep it up-to-date and confirm
potentially inconsistent information from the developed an enhanced Alliance Bank File that changed the accuracy at least once a
characters of the BIC. supports the revised ISO 9362 standard. • There will always be connected year
To serve its users, SWIFT has developed and The update 7.1.15 of the Alliance Access / and non-connected BICs • The SWIFTRef BIC
delivers a new directory of BICs (BIC Plus) Entry software supports this new enhanced Plus directory contains
containing the BIC data record set by the ISO Bank File as well as the SWIFTRef Bank enriched data and replaces BIC
standard. BIC Plus will co-exist with the legacy Directory Plus product. The Alliance Access
BIC Directory until November 2018. BIC / Entry software exploits the connectivity
directory that is
directory users will need to adapt their back- status data from the new attributes instead of decommissioned
office systems and adopt the new directory at deriving the connectivity status from the • After the end of the transition
their best convenience, but before the end of intelligence contained in the 8th character of
the transition period. the BIC.
phase, SWIFT will no longer
issue BICs with “1” in position 8
For users that would not want to take • A change of connectivity status
advantage of the enriched information
contained in the new BIC Plus directory
does no longer systematically
and that would not be prepared for the imply the expiry and creation of
decommissioning of the BIC directory, a new BIC
SWIFTRef will make available a workaround
solution named ‘BIC Directory 2018’. This
directory will maintain the same file structure
as the current BIC directory and will contain
the connectivity and time zone attributes in
existing fields of the BIC directory structure.
16 17
ISO 9362 – BIC implementation:
changes and impact
Appendix ISO 9362 – BIC implementation:
changes and impact
NEW BIC =
AFTER TRANSITION
ABCDBEBB
Y N
FIN
Y/N
18 19
BIC Data Record Metadata attributes
ISO defined fields available in the ISO 9362 directory of BICs Alignment between current directory ‘modification flags’ and new metadata attributes
• A = added
• M = modified
Field Name Data • U = unchanged
RECORD CREATION DATE First publication date • D = deleted
20 21
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