Our client, a leading global financial services institution, faced a major regulatory and technological shift driven by SWIFT’s mandatory migration from legacy MT message formats to the ISO 20022-based MX message standard. With the compliance deadline fast approaching (November 2025), the client needed to execute a full-scale transformation of their financial messaging infrastructure while ensuring operational continuity, compliance, and risk mitigation throughout the transition.
The transition from MT to MX impacted multiple layers of the client's operations, with far-reaching implications across technology, operations, regulatory compliance, and customer servicing:
Modernizing Legacy Systems: The client's back-office system was a custom-developed JAVA application with 25 business-critical screens and 49 tightly coupled database objects. This system was not designed to handle MX's highly structured and data-rich format. The entire system was rewritten using modern technologies like React (Typescript) and .NET Core so as to avoid any technological constraints.
Dual Compatibility During Transition: During the coexistence period, the client needed to process both MT and MX formats simultaneously while ensuring seamless compatibility with counterparties still using MT.
Data Quality & Enrichment: ISO 20022 MX introduces a much richer data structure, necessitating significant improvements in data validation, enrichment, and error-handling processes.
Operational Workflow Redesign: The more detailed MX message structures required significant adjustments in internal workflows for processing, reconciliation, corporate actions, and exception handling.
Data Migration strategy: Since the existing application was already used by the client. It was necessary to devise a complex data migration strategy to avoid any data loss during transition.
Integration Complexity: Ensuring seamless integration with SWIFT’s Alliance Cloud and adopting SWIFT Messaging API 2.0 posed additional technical challenges. Adopting to Alliance cloud and Swift messaging API was necessary to avoid any future migrations (As SWIFT is planning to depreciate both Alliance Lite and Swift SIL in near future).
Testing & Interoperability: Rigorous system testing, including functional, integration, and end-to-end interoperability testing, was critical to ensure a stable production roll-out.
Aggressive Timelines: With limited time before the regulatory deadline, a comprehensive but time-sensitive execution plan was critical.
Client and Oneture formed an integrated delivery team to jointly design and execute a phased transformation program:
1. Strategic Assessment & Planning
Conducted a detailed assessment of the client's existing systems, interfaces, workflows, and message formats.
Identified the impacted business functions and downstream dependencies.
Developed a comprehensive migration blueprint balancing regulatory timelines, operational risks, and business priorities.
2. Platform Modernization & Application Rewrite
Fully rewrote the client's existing JAVA (.NET)-based back-office system, modernizing 25 core business screens including:
Redesigned 49 underlying database objects to accommodate ISO 20022's expanded data fields and validation rules.
Refaced the UI entirely as per modern standards to improve user experience and operativity.
3. MT to MX Message Translation Layer
Built configurable translation engines to handle bidirectional conversion between MT and MX formats.
Developed, tested, and validated multiple message types in sandbox environments to ensure accurate translation logic.
Enabled message coexistence for both formats to ensure operational continuity during the transition window.
4. SWIFT Messaging API 2.0 Integration
Integrated SWIFT Messaging API 2.0 (via MV-SIPN based connectivity) for Alliance Cloud to ensure direct connectivity, security, and real-time message handling capability.
Implemented necessary middleware and API orchestration layers to handle message flow seamlessly between the client’s internal systems and SWIFT’s cloud infrastructure.
5. Testing & Certification
Conducted comprehensive functional, integration, performance, and end-to-end testing cycles.
Carried out interoperability tests with SWIFT and multiple external counterparties.
Prepared and supported the client through certification and readiness validation exercises.
6. Risk Mitigation & Governance
Identified key project risks upfront, including integration failures, data mismatches, regulatory non-compliance, and operational disruptions.
Defined and executed detailed contingency and fallback procedures to mitigate downtime or disruptions.
Conducted continuous alignment sessions with business, operations, compliance, and IT teams to ensure coordinated execution.
To ensure robust, compliant, and scalable MT to MX migration, Client-Oneture adopted an architecture approach aligned with SWIFT’s recommended patterns for Messaging API 2.0 and Alliance Cloud integration. The architecture provides a clear, step-by-step framework that enables seamless message processing while addressing both current and future business needs.
Future-ready back-office platform fully compliant with ISO 20022 standards.
Seamless MT/MX coexistence capability during the transition phase.
Significantly improved data validation, reconciliation, and operational efficiency.
Full integration with SWIFT Alliance Cloud via Messaging API 2.0.
Successful completion within targeted timelines, minimizing operational disruption and de-risking the regulatory deadline.
