Last week, Paylume travelled to Frankfurt for Sibos, the annual global financial services conference organised by SWIFT.
The event brings together banks, regulators, fintechs, and technology providers, facilitating discussion on payments, securities, cash management, and digital innovation alike.
At such a pressing time for payments and banking, when institutions are adapting to the rise of new technologies, whether that be stablecoins or central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), conversations focused on a variety of subjects.
Here are some of the biggest subjects that featured at Sibos this year:
ISO 20022 and what comes next
Perhaps unsurprisingly, ISO 20022 was a constant point of discussion for conference attendees and panellists alike.
This is because the industry is at an inflection point with the coexistence period ending on 22nd November 2025 – a deadline less than eight weeks away. This date marks the end of the coexistence period for legacy MT and new ISO 20022 (MX) messaging formats, requiring all cross-border payment instructions on the Swift network to be in the ISO 20022 format by this date.
Going forward, institutions will need to rely on FINPlus, Swift’s ISO 20022 store-and-forward messaging service, which enables richer data and larger message sizes.
Failing to meet the November deadline will result in financial and operational disruptions, as well as increased costs for using Swift’s contingency conversion service, highlighting the need for institutions to adopt native ISO 20022 and leverage its advanced data capabilities for operational efficiency and innovation.
This is more than just a step change for firms, and it brings more wide-ranging implications than even some regulations.
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nternal systems, correspondents, and clearing infrastructures will all need to be able to process and preserve the richer data, and there will need to be a broad understanding across different departments, whether that be compliance, AML, fraud, operations, or IT teams.
However, once that crucial compliance hurdle is cleared, the banking and payments industry should be able to focus on capturing value from ISO 20022, with improved fraud detection, stronger liquidity and risk management, enhanced reconciliation, and new product innovation all becoming possible.
The migration to ISO 20022 will fundamentally alter the operational requirements for participation in the global payments system. Those that treat ISO 20022 not just as a standards requirement but as an enabler of better products and services will be best positioned to benefit.
Data monetisation, and what it means for payments
The EU is on the cusp of new regulatory oversight for open banking and open finance, once its new payments and financial data access rulebooks – the PSD3, PSR, and FiDA – are agreed and signed into law.
These will spark more opportunities for data sharing in the EU, and this goes beyond just financial institutions sharing data. Mortgage lenders, cryptocurrency exchanges, insurance brokers and others will also be required to share customer data to third party providers. Unlike under PSD2, FiDA will allow financial data providers to be compensated for providing access to customer data.
Regulations like FiDA drive the opportunity more than ever before to blur the traditional lines between compliance and innovation. The winners will need to leverage the high regulatory compliance cost with delivering new customer experiences. FiDA presents a much bolder move for Europe than open banking under PSD2.
This change could mean moving from a model of mandated data sharing towards one where high-quality, structured financial data transforms into a tradable asset in its own right, fuelling innovation in credit scoring, personalised financial advice, and better products such as insurance.
Preparing for FATF Recommendation 16
The Financial Action Task Force’s proposals to update Recommendation 16, known as the “Payment Transparency” rule (formerly the “Travel Rule”), will require peer-to-peer cross-border payments above USD/EUR 1,000 to include detailed originator and beneficiary data (name, address, date of birth, as well as Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs) for legal persons.
Agreed at the June 2025 Plenary, the revisions are intended to shore up the integrity of international payments by clarifying responsibilities within the payment chain, mandating tools to prevent fraud and error, and ensuring consistent data to identify suspicious transactions.
However, this will present a significant impact on cross-border payments and will mean an update to protocols within banks and payment services that facilitate cross-border transactions. Financial Insitutions will need to integrate new data requirements and verification protocols into their existing payment and compliance systems.
How to embrace CBDCs and stablecoins
Frankfurt is of course the epicentre of European monetary policy, considering it is home to the European Central Bank.
It is here that crucial decisions on issues such as the digital euro, and systemic stablecoins, will be made.
The advent of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and stablecoins could turn out to be a revolution in payments, as well as the potential innovation for consumers and institutions alike.
A report released earlier this week suggested that the ECB’s digital euro could transform payments by enabling conditional transactions that trigger automatically once pre-defined conditions are met, allowing providers to build services such as pay-on-delivery shopping, automated insurance reimbursements, streamlined refunds, and tap-and-go transport fares.
This is playing out at the same time as the US GENIUS Act, which stands to bring stablecoins into the mainstream of financial services, with the likes of Amazon and Walmart reportedly exploring the possibility to deploy a stablecoin for ecommerce.
Financial institutions have no choice but to embrace this change, and that was clear from many of Sibos panels on topics like digital assets.
Leveraging LEI beyond capital markets
A talking point that came up a lot was the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI), which could unlock significant benefits in payments and banking beyond its established role in capital markets.
This is by providing a globally standardised and reliable means of identifying counterparties both legal entities and legal persons, something that has significant at a time of rampant fraud. These sorts of initatives are vital for compliance with the FATF guidelines on Recommendation 16, which will soon set in motion a much more intense emphasis on identification at a global scale.
The deployment of LEIs could also bolster AML/CFT screening and sanctions compliance by offering a single, verified reference point, and can play a significant role in reducing authorised push payment (APP) fraud by confirming the legitimacy of payees.
Meanwhile, LEI has often been discussed in the context of open banking. Whilst PSD2 did not mandate the use of LEI, the US’ Rule 1033 enforced the use of LEI for identification of third parties accessing customer data.
Although the future of Rule 1033 hangs in the balance, the use of LEI in open banking across the globe would significantly enhance transparency around who has access to customer data and is able to initiate funds.
Next steps
There is no doubt that Paylume’s first Sibos was a success. Over the next few weeks, we will be delving deeper into some of the most topical subjects, including LEIs and, of course, SWIFT’s latest announcements on cross-border payments and blockchain-based ledgers.
In the coming months, change will become ever more pertinent, whether through the introduction and implementation of laws like the GENIUS Act and PSD3, or through the completion of the migration to ISO 20022.
Gathering together last week to understand both the collective needs of the industry and the unique challenges faced by individual institutions is central to what we do.
We’re here to help your teams understand how to view these changes as an opportunity more than simply compliance.
For now, we will see you next year in Miami for Sibos 2026!
