"The adoption of the MX message types is potentially a tough challenge, particularly for smaller banks," says Aqua Global's Sales Manager, Peter Truckle. The first countries to adopt them are Luxembourg and Ireland, where institutions need to be under way with this by the end of this year. All players in the funds sector are meant to have implemented ISO 20022 for Funds by the end of 2011.

The development work for e2gen has been completed and a number of clients are currently at different stages of implementation and testing.These include Moventum S.C.A., Nikko Bank (Luxembourg) S.A. and Nordea Bank S.A.

While the amount of work involved to make the changes to e2gen should not be under-estimated, Aqua Global was helped by the fact that it had already adapted its platform for ISO 20022 messages for SEPA Credit Transfers (SCT), SEPA Direct Debits (SDD) and Workers Remittances (WR). "We had no fear because of our experiences with SCT, SDD and WR. We knew that we could generate these messages and associated workflows very rapidly," says Mr Truckle.

Unlike some other approaches, e2gen does not merely reformat in-bound and out-bound messages into the new formats but makes use of the new formats for processing, eliminating the overhead required for that processing step. However, a reformatting capability is also provided to support processing for heritage systems that cannot support MX messages. The businesses processes and workflows of e2gen have been enhanced to ensure high levels of straight-through processing for funds messages. Among the processes that have needed to be adapted are those associated with reporting and statement production, message matching, reconciliations, and asset transfer management, providing complete visibility and control over the funds transaction cycle.

In addition, through the e2gen rules engine, users can specify by counterparty whether or not to send ISO 20022 messages, so can use ISO 15022 messages for those institutions thatt are not ready to receive the new message types.

Developed by Swift, working with the funds industry, the MX messages cover the transaction flows plus transfers, statements, account management, price reports and cash forecasts associated with funds. As a result, the new messages can deal with all key processes within the value chain. They cover traditional mutual funds as well as the specific needs of pension funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and alternative funds.