The SAMOS system is operated and maintained by The South African Reserve Bank.

ISO formats have been implemented for domestic High Value South African Rand transactions

In addition to realising benefits of increased payment transparency and richer data, the migration to ISO 20022 will also enable J.P. Morgan South Africa to improve the speed and efficiency of launching new global/local products and enhancements.

With this, South Africa becomes the first EMEA branch of J.P. Morgan Payments to fully migrate domestic flows to ISO 20022.

Following this successful migration, J.P. Morgan Johannesburg branch was part of a small group of participant banks that has won the innovation and excellence team award, presented by The Payments Association of South Africa (PASA).

J.P. Morgan was the only international bank included in the Support Authority Working Group, which focused on the successful migration to ISO 20022 SWIFT standards

Sara Castellano, co-head of EMEA Payments & Commerce Solutions, J.P. Morgan Payments said, “The new ISO standards bring a huge number of benefits to the payments industry. They enable payments to carry more, enriched and structured data that can flow in a faster manner, ultimately benefitting the end customer. We’re delighted to be live in South Africa, an important market for our EMEA franchise.”

J.P. Morgan Payments is committed to the EMEA region and continues to grow, scale and strengthen its capabilities across the region. Its suite of solutions and local expertise is crucial to its clients, particularly in light of evolving business models. The EMEA business leverages J.P. Morgan’s global scale and service to enable firms across the region to solve the most complex payments challenges.

South Africa is one of the first countries on the continent to adopt the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) financial messaging standard ISO 20022, which is expected to underpin all high-value payments in reserve currencies by 2025.

The move to ISO 20022 - driven through the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) - was necessitated by the rapid development of disruptive technology, evolving cyberthreats, increased regulation and demands from customers for faster, more cost-effective payments.

The adoption of the ISO 20022 standard is expected to improve compliance and transparency, increase efficiency and interoperability, enhance customer experience, and speed up payment systems.