Minutes of the Standards Advisory Panel – July 2023

Minutes

Date of meeting: 20 July 2023

Item 1: Welcome and introductions

1. The Chair welcomed members and introduced new members: Naresh Aggarwal, who joins from ACT as a replacement for Caroline Stockmann, and Domenico Scaffidi will continue to be a Panel member in his new role.

2. The Chair reviewed actions from the previous SAP meetings:

• Action 1 (SAP November 2022): The Chair noted the global ISO 20022 migration challenges/impacts and asked to investigate whether there were similar ‘global coordination’ groups in other sectors outside payments. The Bank of England (‘the Bank’) suggested postponing this to a future SAP meeting.
• Action 2 (SAP November 2022): The Bank to raise the A1 API workstream and BB15 workstreams on the Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee (JROC) agenda concerning UK Open Banking Limited (OBL). The Bank proposed discussing it at a future SAP.
• Action 3 (SAP November 2022): Update on the Enhanced Data (guidance) in due course. The Bank updated the Panel on Enhanced Data during ‘Item 5’ of the meeting.
• Action 1 (SAP March 2023): The working group to share the final draft version of the API framework for UK Payment (‘the Framework’) document setting out guidance and principles for creating and maintaining UK payment APIs with SAP. The working group has shared the Framework with the Panel members ahead of this meeting.
• Action 2 (SAP March 2023): Pay.UK to share the progress and challenges of Enhanced Fraud Data (EFD) Standard project. Pay.UK proposed discussing this at a future SAP.
• Action 3 (SAP March 2023): Reflect back after the April JROC meeting on the report by the Strategic Working Group (SWG). Pay.UK suggested postponing this to a future SAP.
• Action 4 (SAP March 2023): Update on ‘using the ISO 20022 standard to implement Enhanced Data’. The Bank updated the Panel on Enhanced Data during ‘Item 5’ of the meeting.

Item 2: A1 Workstream (API framework, principles and standard) – Update and Discussion

3. The workstream shared with SAP members a final draft version of the Framework, setting out guidance and principles on how to create and maintain UK payment APIs.

4. The workstream co-lead updated the Panel on the rationale for a Framework being required by the UK payments industry; the recommended Framework will leverage external sources as they evolve and can contribute to a consistent approach on versioning and controls, change management, backward compatibilities, fundamental security approaches and the expectations of API consumers. The workstream recommends to use the Framework as a baseline of recommended good practices, recognising that organisations will have APIs that exist or were developed outside these recommendations.

5. The Panel discussed the potential for future ownership and maintenance of the Framework, an approach to a wider industry consultation about it and its eventual publication and adoption.

6. The workstream co-leads asked for Panel members to review this draft version and provide comments back to the workstream over the next 2-3 weeks (Action 1) and for the workstream (Action 2) to provide recommendations on:

• the ownership of the Framework in the next SAP meeting,
• expectations on testing and transparency; and
• interoperability with other initiatives.

Item 3: Payment standards as an ESG enabler

7. The Chair outlined how Standards could play a key role in driving the agenda of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives forward, particularly on the Social aspect, such as supporting AML and fraud prevention initiatives. SAP will discuss in greater detail at a future meeting later this year. In the meantime, the Chair asked the Panel to consider potential use cases for how standards can enhance ESG initiatives (Action 3).

Item 4: Update on Standards Engagement Forum (SEF)

8. Robert White, as the Chair of the Standards Engagement Forum (‘SEF’) updated the Panel on the key highlights and the background of SEF. He showcased SEF’s proposed initiatives – areas for developments – and indicated that SEF will define its prioritisation criteria in its next meeting.

9. Pay.UK noted that the criticality to the UK industry and users for APP Reimbursement and summarised Pay.UK’s engagements with UK Finance on this matter.

10. The Panel also discussed that there may be healthy overlaps between the two fora, SAP and SEF, and the importance of transparency and alignment to negate any duplication of effort. The SEF Chair was requested to return to a future SAP meeting with such recommendations (Action 4).

Item 5: General Items

11. The Bank gave the Panel an update on several items that had previously been discussed or reviewed by SAP. The Bank also updated the Panel on their ISO 20022 go-live as part of RTGS Renewal.

Structured Remittance Data:

• The Bank and the ACT had set up a working group with representatives from user groups, Direct Participants (DPs), and others to review existing global guidance on corporate structured remittance data.
• The Bank has held workshops with Pay.UK, Government Banking Service (GBS) and HMRC experts on standardising richer data regarding tax payments.

Benefits of ISO 20022:

• The Bank’s Enhanced Data Working Group (EDWG) is ongoing with monthly meetings.
• The Bank is working with CHAPS DPs and other representative groups on a tailored communications campaign, linking it with their ISO 20022 and RTGS renewal go-live dates.
• The Bank will work with CHAPs representative groups on specific use cases in the rest of 2023. The Chair asked that more use cases are to be shared at a future SAP when available (Action 5).

Cross-border Payment Initiatives:

• The Bank is the Chair of the API panel of experts (APEX) group, noting that the SAP A1 API Framework output will be an example of an input to be considered by the APEX group as part of their stock take of existing payment API frameworks.
• The strategic public-private group is reviewing the delivery of specific cross-border initiatives, including access, messaging standards, operating hours and the interlinking of infrastructures. Meanwhile the technical Joint Task Force on the implementation of ISO 20022 is refining its requirements following industry feedback. The Bank will review the impact of these requirements on wider CHAPS policy following their publication.

Item 6: Any other business

Close of meeting.