Industry Readiness and Production Cutover Preparations Frequently Asked Questions

Industry Readiness

1. Will the Federal Reserve Banks provide any tools to help Fedwire^® Funds Service customers keep track of key milestones for the ISO^® 20022 migration?

   We have created a checklist to help you prepare for the Fedwire Funds Service ISO 20022 migration. Please review the checklist that applies to the primary FedLine^® solution that your organization uses to access the Fedwire Funds Service.

   • FedLine Direct checklists:
     • Customers and service/software providers with own connection
     • Customers using a service provider
   • FedPayments Manager — Funds via FedLine Advantage checklists:
     • Primary and backup users of import/export feature
     • Manual entry and template users

    
2. How will we know we are on track to meet the March 10, 2025 implementation date?

   We plan to track industry readiness against key milestones for the ISO 20022 implementation. The following dashboards will be provided on the Fedwire Funds Service ISO 20022 Implementation Center page on a regular basis.

   • DIT2 onboarding dashboard — While there are still a few customers that need to complete the DIT2 onboarding process we will complete this critical milestone in 2023. View the final DIT2 onboarding dashboard in the Implementation Center.
   • ISO 20022 testing dashboard — We have divided the Fedwire Funds Service community into several groups (e.g., origination volume size, service providers, bankers’ banks/corporate credit unions) according to the FedLine solution they use as their primary solution to send and receive their Fedwire Funds Service transactions. We will track the progress of each mandatory group against key testing milestones and intend to report on the status of each group beginning in Q1 2024.

    
3. When will the Federal Reserve Banks make the final “go/no go” decision before the March 10, 2025 implementation date?

   Under a revised “backout” strategy, the Federal Reserve Banks plan to complete all internal and customer testing activities at least two weeks prior to the ISO 20022 implementation date and make a “go/no go” decision based on internal and industry readiness. The Federal Reserve Banks intend to notify all customers about the “go/no go” decision on February 21, 2025. If a “go” decision is made, the Federal Reserve Banks will be subject to a two-week freeze period during which no further changes would be made to the ISO 20022 software and production infrastructure. If the Federal Reserve Banks decide to delay the implementation date for any reason, the notification would provide customers two weeks’ advance notice to adjust their plans.

4. What criteria are the Federal Reserve Banks using to make the “go/no go” decision for the March 10, 2025 implementation?

   The criteria to make the “go/no go” decision on February 21, 2025 will be based on our assessment of industry readiness, but the details are still being developed. We will announce the criteria in the On the Wire newsletter once finalized.

5. What happens if my institution is not ready for the March 10, 2025 ISO 20022 implementation?

   Fedwire Funds Service customers should make contingency arrangements if they will not be ready to cutover to ISO 20022 messages on March 10, 2025. Customers that have access to the FedPayments^® Manager — Funds application as a backup will be able to manually send and receive their Fedwire Funds messages in the event that their primary method to access the Fedwire Funds Service is not ready or experiences an issue on or after the March 10, 2025 implementation.

6. Will the Federal Reserve Banks provide any translation services in case some customers are not ready for the ISO 20022 implementation on March 10, 2025?

   The ISO 20022 implementation on March 10, 2025 will be a single-day (“big bang”) migration and we do not plan to provide any translation services.

7. What happens if the Federal Reserve Banks encounter a significant issue with the ISO 20022-related changes for the Fedwire Funds Service on or after the March 10, 2025 implementation date?

   Consistent with prior customer-facing initiatives, we will not fall back to the proprietary message format for the Fedwire Funds Service if any issues arise during or after the deployment of the ISO 20022 software to the production environment. Rather, we will follow a “fix-in-place” strategy to implement a software update to address the issue as soon as the fix has been identified and fully tested.

Production Cutover Preparations

1. What do we need to do to prepare for the ISO 20022 cutover weekend beginning Friday, March 7, 2025?

   On Friday, March 7, 2025, all customers should ensure staff remain available until the Fedwire^® Funds Service closes at 7:00 p.m. ET (or later if there are any extensions) to ensure an orderly close for the last business day of the proprietary Fedwire Application Interface Manual (FAIM) format.

   Customers should also be prepared to take the following actions on Friday, March 7, 2025 depending on how they access the Fedwire Funds Service:

   • Customers and service providers that have their own FedLine Direct® connection should ensure they receive and process all incoming Fedwire Funds Service FAIM-formatted messages on their MQ queues. When the Fedwire Funds Service opens for the first business day with the ISO 20022 format on Monday, March 10, 2025 (i.e., Sunday, March 9, 2025 at 9:00 p.m. ET), customers and service providers will not be able to perform prior-day retrievals of FAIM-formatted messages.
   • Customers that use a service provider should ensure they complete processing of all outgoing and incoming Fedwire Funds Service messages for March 7, 2025. Please note that your service provider may have additional requirements.
   • Customers that use the FedPayments^® Manager — Funds application should ensure they complete processing all outgoing messages because messages in an “In Process” status (i.e., Awaiting Correction, Awaiting Verification, Held by Supervisor, and Held for Service Availability) will be cancelled when the Fedwire Funds Service closes on March 7, 2025. Further, customers should complete processing for all incoming messages because they will move to the Past Messages — FAIM folder when the Fedwire Funds Service closes on March 7, 2025.

    

   Finally, customers that have internal systems that allow them to schedule future-dated messages will not be able to send those messages in the FAIM format beginning March 10, 2025.

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