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The Bank of Israel has fully implemented ISO 20022 in its payments infrastructure, marking a key point in the modernisation of the country's payments landscape.
ISO 20022 is a universal language for financial messaging, intended to ensure that payments sent between organisations contain consistent categories of information, and that such information is more easily verified at source.
The completed transition means that non-bank participants in Israel will now be able to interact directly with the country’s real-time gross settlement (RTGS) infrastructure (Zahav).
The Bank of Israel hailed the move as a “major milestone” in advancing the country’s financial infrastructure and placing the economy at the forefront of innovation in the payments field.
The new standard will help make payment transfers faster, cheaper and more efficient by enabling the transfer of richer, more structured and more uniform payment data messages, the bank said.
Professor Amir Yaron, governor of the Bank of Israel, said the implementation is “an important infrastructural and strategic step” that brings Israel into line with international standards.
It enables Israeli finance companies to operate seamlessly in other ISO 20022-aligned global markets and paves the way for increased interoperability and more competition and financial innovation.
Implementing ISO 20022 also brings fraud-prevention benefits to Israel, which, as covered by Vixio, has prioritised anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing (AML/CTF) in recent years.
Yaron added: “The success in implementing the standard strengthens the core infrastructure of the payments market in Israel, contributes to improved transparency, precision, and efficiency, and places Israel at the global forefront of innovation in the payment systems field.”
Common language
ISO 20022 is rapidly becoming the common language of the international payments system, and by adopting the standard Israel has brought itself into line with jurisdictions such as the US and the EU, and taken a decisive step in the modernisation of its payments infrastructure.
Ofer Golan, head of the payment and settlement systems department at the Bank of Israel, said it was an exciting time and that the country’s payments market is undergoing a major technological leap.
“The successful adoption of this standard brings us in line with global norms and is an important element in strengthening our core financial infrastructure, boosting efficiency, improving data transparency and precision, and preparing the market for the challenges and opportunities of the global economy”, he added
Cutting edge
Lior Georgi, head of the information technology department at the Bank of Israel, said that rolling out ISO 20022 “puts us at the cutting edge of financial innovation, and lets us take advantage of a richer, more comprehensive messaging protocol. It is a technological leap forward that bolsters our position and enables us to tackle the future challenges in the payments world.”
The importance of payment systems to Israel’s economy has been repeatedly underscored in recent months and years.
In January 2025, as covered by Vixio, Israel brought in strict guidelines to enhance the stability and transparency of payment service providers (PSPs) deemed critical to financial stability.
The policies established strict guidelines for ownership and influence within PSPs.
In 2024 the Bank of Israel enabled new domestic and international non-bank participants to access supervised payment systems, where previously this access was only granted to banks.
This was part of the central bank’s drive to expand the country’s payments ecosystem, a move that was codified under the Payment Services and Payment Initiation Law 5783-2023, which was officially published in June 2023 and took effect in June 2024.
