General message element specifications

General Message Element Specifications

PSP Identifiers

• The PSP can be identified using either BIC, LEI, or an alternative domestic format (“Other” in the ISO 20022 standard).

  • In case the BIC is used to identify financial institutions (Agents in the ISO 20022 standards), this may be either BIC 11 or BIC 8. Depending on the version of the ISO 20022 message used, the BIC of a financial institution may be populated either in a <BIC> or in a <BICFI> element (Note: the latter applies to the pacs.028.001.01, camt.027.001.06, camt.087.001.05 and camt.029.001.08 messages).

  • The Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) is a 20-character, alpha-numeric code based on the ISO 17442 standard developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

    • The Source PSP should provide its own LEI in the <LEI> element.

    • Where LEIs for other agents are available, they can also be used (but are not mandatory)

  • Domestic PSP identifiers need to follow the domestic formatting rules.

    • The format of domestic PSP identifiers should be defined using the Admin Portal, as a regular expression, so that it can be shared with Source PSPs when initiating payments to the Destination Country.

Account Identifiers

The Recipient can provide the Sender with the same account details that they would use to receive a domestic payment.

Account details vary in format from country to country, but typically include an account number and a series of numbers or letters that identifies the bank or branch which issues that account. Some examples of national account number formats are below.

Example Domestic Account Number Formats

Country	Account Number	Bank/Branch Identifier Format
Australia	Account number (9 digits)	BSB (Bank State Branch) code (6 letters)
India	Account number (9-18 digits)	Indian Financial System Code (IFSC) (11 letters and numbers)
Singapore	Account number (10 numbers)	Bank name (BIC for international payments)
UK	Account number (8 digits)	Sort code (6 digits)
USA	Account number (10-12 digit)	Routing number (9 digits)

In the version of Nexus developed in the PoC, we assumed that domestic accounts can be identified by just two pieces of information: an account number and a PSP identifier (such as BIC). This is not necessarily the case in all payment systems – for example, in some countries, three pieces of information may be required: bank identifier, branch identifier and account number. A production version of Nexus would need to be designed to accommodate such scenarios.

IBAN

IBANs can be used to address Nexus payments when they are supported by the IPS and its member community. The Admin Portal can be used to confirm to Nexus whether IBANs are supported or not for a specific IPS.

In the case that IBANs are mandatory for all payments, the Admin Portal can be used to set the Domestic PSP Identifier Type to “None”.