About the UNIFI message standard

At the beginning of the decade, the general interest in Internet Protocol (IP) and XML was perceived as a unique opportunity for the industry to move to a common XML-based language. There was a problem, however, because XML is not a language at all, but rather a meta-language which everyone can use to define their own dialect. As a result, several standardization initiatives grew from the common XML concept, each with messages using their own dialect, or adaptation of XML. This led to not only an increased risk of yet more 'languages' being introduced, but a waste of resources in the form of duplicated effort, and a further risk of divergence when more than one initiative is brought to focus on the same business area.

To solve this problem, ISO proposed a single standardization approach, or "recipe" which includes a common development methodology, a common process, and a common repository, that would be used by all financial standards initiatives. This recipe, called UNIFI or ISO 20022 is the message standard around which the SEPA component is developed.

For a complete description of ISO 20022 message flow, refer to the International Standardization Organization, ISO 20022 UNIversal Financial Industry message scheme. This information is available at:

www.iso20022.org/