BIAN updates banking model with ISO 20022, AI focus

The Banking Industry Architecture Network has released version 14.0 of its service landscape, updating its reference framework for banking services as firms step up modernisation programmes and work on data standards.

BIAN is an independent, not-for-profit standards body. Its service landscape provides a structured view of the business services and components used in financial institutions. Banks and technology suppliers use it to plan architectures, define interfaces, and align internal systems with industry terminology.

The 14.0 update puts greater emphasis on data and messaging consistency, including closer alignment with ISO 20022, the global standard for financial messaging. ISO 20022 is widely adopted in payments and is increasingly used in adjacent areas such as securities and trade.

ISO 20022 focus

The enhanced mapping between the BIAN model and ISO 20022 is intended to reduce friction when organisations exchange structured data across internal platforms and external networks. It also reflects the standard's growing role in regulatory reporting and cross-border transaction processing.

As market infrastructures move to ISO 20022, firms have been replacing older message formats. The shift has increased the amount of structured data available in transactions and pushed banks to review how they model data, manage format translations, and maintain end-to-end traceability.

Adopting the 14.0 landscape can also support simpler data structures and stronger compliance readiness across markets. Large banks typically maintain multiple representations of products, customers, and transactions across different systems. Standardised service definitions and consistent data models can reduce duplication and improve auditability.

Payments and insurance

BIAN is also expanding its work more formally into payments and insurance, signalling an ambition for a reference model that covers more of the financial services ecosystem.

Payments has become a focal point for many banks and technology groups. Real-time schemes, open banking interfaces, and cross-border initiatives continue to reshape back-end processing and connections to third parties. Insurance brings its own product complexity and regulatory requirements, and groups that operate in both banking and insurance often manage separate technology stacks and data definitions.

BIAN argues that a unified model can improve consistency across business lines, reflecting a broader shift as financial institutions reorganise around shared platforms rather than product silos.

AI-related changes

The 14.0 release includes new service domains to support AI-enabled use cases. It also updates "behaviour qualifiers", which describe how services are performed and how processes and information flows are orchestrated within the model.

Financial institutions have increased spending on data platforms and governance as they assess how to deploy machine learning and generative AI tools. Many programmes run into constraints caused by fragmented data, inconsistent process definitions, and legacy integration patterns. Standards bodies have responded by refining reference models and terminology to provide a common baseline for technology and business teams.

BIAN also highlighted enhancements aimed at interoperability across APIs, messaging, and modular systems. Banks increasingly operate hybrid environments that include legacy cores, packaged platforms, and cloud-native services. These environments depend on consistent interface definitions and clear service boundaries, as well as mapping between synchronous APIs and asynchronous messaging patterns.

The service landscape is one part of BIAN's broader work on reference architectures and service definitions. Organisations use these artefacts for transformation planning and supplier discussions, and to design reusable services that sit above product-specific systems.

Hans Tesselaar, executive director of BIAN, said the release is intended to clarify how firms integrate new technologies into banking architecture.

"The changes in Service Landscape 14.0 give developers, architects, and business leaders a clearer blueprint for integrating AI effectively and improve productivity within organisations. As financial institutions accelerate their modernisation efforts, we want our members to lead the industry in turning emerging technologies into meaningful productivity gains," said Hans Tesselaar, Executive Director, BIAN.

Next steps include further work on the newly emphasised areas, with continued refinement of service domains and mappings as ISO 20022 adoption expands and financial institutions increase investment in modular architectures.