UN CEFACT TBG5
Encyclopedia
UN/CEFACT TBG5 is the entity responsible for financial services
under the United Nations Centre for Trade facilitation
and Electronic Business, (UN/CEFACT
) under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
(UNECE).
As an International Trade & Business Processes Group (TBG), TBG5 is the working group specializing in the Finance Domain its mission is to enable end-to-end straight-through processing (End to End (E2E) Straight Through Processing
(STP) of financial services data and to establish standards and requirements for the exchange of such data.
TBG5 delivers solutions and standards that lead to the simplification of international trade. With finance forming an integral and vital part of many trade transactions the group is widely consulted by the other industry vertical domains under the UN/CEFACT umbrella who are pursuing similar objectives.
TBG5 is positioned as the co-ordination point between pure Financial Services standardisation, which takes place under ISO Technical Committee 68, and that of the wider trade domains represented under UN/CEFACT. The key objective in this respect is to offer interoperability, and indeed in the longer term convergence, between standards and solutions offered by either of these bodies. TBG5 has become more Corporate oriented by broadening out its membership to attract other industry vertical groupings, making TBG5 the focal forum allowing banks, corporates and others to collaborate on standards issues.
Past standards created by TBG5 include such important items in everyday use such as the EDIFACT
standards for the payment domain. UN/EDIFACT is the international EDI standard. The acronym stands for United Nations/Electronic Data Interchange For Administration, Commerce, and Transport. The work of maintenance and further development of these payment standards is done through TBG5. EDIFACT has been adopted as a global standard by the International Organization for Standardization
(ISO) as ISO 9735.
Other standards created by TBG5 include CREMUL, DEBMUL, DIRDEB, FINCAN, FINSTA and PAYMUL.
(Electronic Data Exchange For Administration Commerce and Transport). The word "transport" was adopted over the originally proposed "trade" which – in Oxford English – is synonym to Commerce).
In 1989 the concept of EDIFACT, the cross-sectorial messaging destined to permit end-to-end STP
communication between banks and their corporate customers was introduced to the financial sector during the SWIFT
SIBOS conference held in Stockholm through a joint corporate and bank panel presentation. Attendance at this session was overwhelming (remote television screens had to be installed outside the packed meeting room) however incompatibility between EDIFACT and SWIFT syntax prevented any further progress until XML
syntax enabled stakeholders in the standardisation process to resume contacts.
The EDIFACT organisation was initially based on separate, autonomous regions around the globe, i.e. Western Europe, the Americas and Australasia, with Eastern Europe being a non-voting participant. Each approval and amendment had to accepted by the three regional communities, each officially represented by a distinct Rapporteur. Frequent disputes had to be discussed and sorted out during the semi-annual meetings called JRT (Joint Rapporteur Team) meetings. With the advent of email the EDIFACT organisation was centralised, especially the technical assessment working group, and the Regional Rapporteurs’ role was eventually reduced to nothing. Over time the EDIFACT organization was constituted by UNECE under its current name UN CEFACT TBG5.
Financial services
Financial services refer to services provided by the finance industry. The finance industry encompasses a broad range of organizations that deal with the management of money. Among these organizations are credit unions, banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, consumer finance companies,...
under the United Nations Centre for Trade facilitation
Trade facilitation
Trade facilitation looks at how procedures and controls governing the movement of goods across national borders can be improved to reduce associated cost burdens and maximise efficiency while safeguarding legitimate regulatory objectives...
and Electronic Business, (UN/CEFACT
UN/CEFACT
UN/CEFACT is an organisation that makes international EDI Electronic Data Interchange standards for electronic trade documents in XML format.- UN/CEFACT History, A UN mission to support trade:...
) under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe was established in 1947 to encourage economic cooperation among its member states. It is one of five regional commissions under the administrative direction of United Nations headquarters. It has 56 member states, and reports to the UN Economic and...
(UNECE).
As an International Trade & Business Processes Group (TBG), TBG5 is the working group specializing in the Finance Domain its mission is to enable end-to-end straight-through processing (End to End (E2E) Straight Through Processing
Straight Through Processing
Straight-through processing enables the entire trade process for capital markets and payment transactions to be conducted electronically without the need for re-keying or manual intervention, subject to legal and regulatory restrictions...
(STP) of financial services data and to establish standards and requirements for the exchange of such data.
TBG5 delivers solutions and standards that lead to the simplification of international trade. With finance forming an integral and vital part of many trade transactions the group is widely consulted by the other industry vertical domains under the UN/CEFACT umbrella who are pursuing similar objectives.
TBG5 is positioned as the co-ordination point between pure Financial Services standardisation, which takes place under ISO Technical Committee 68, and that of the wider trade domains represented under UN/CEFACT. The key objective in this respect is to offer interoperability, and indeed in the longer term convergence, between standards and solutions offered by either of these bodies. TBG5 has become more Corporate oriented by broadening out its membership to attract other industry vertical groupings, making TBG5 the focal forum allowing banks, corporates and others to collaborate on standards issues.
Past standards created by TBG5 include such important items in everyday use such as the EDIFACT
EDIFACT
United Nations/Electronic Data Interchange For Administration, Commerce and Transport is the international EDI standard developed under the United Nations...
standards for the payment domain. UN/EDIFACT is the international EDI standard. The acronym stands for United Nations/Electronic Data Interchange For Administration, Commerce, and Transport. The work of maintenance and further development of these payment standards is done through TBG5. EDIFACT has been adopted as a global standard by the International Organization for Standardization
International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO, is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial...
(ISO) as ISO 9735.
Other standards created by TBG5 include CREMUL, DEBMUL, DIRDEB, FINCAN, FINSTA and PAYMUL.
Corporate Reference Group
The Corporate Reference Group subcommittee of TBG5 has a membership of corporations which use TBG5 standards. The Corporate Reference Group (CRG) mission is to identify requirements of industry for new standards and required improvements of existing standards. A primary mission of the CRG includes standardisation of the EDIFACT messages relevant for the STP information exchange between corporates and banks to save costs for implementation and maintenance by precise and unambiguous definitions and publication of the EDIFACT subsets.Maintenance Task Force
The Maintenance Task Force develops new standards and edits existing standards as industry requirements change or new requirements are identified.Services of TBG5
TBG5 offers an online IBAN validation service. Additionally the source code for this service can be imported into other websites.IBAN Validation Online Service
The TBG5 validation service will validate IBAN numbers in all current 46 countries that have adopted the IBAN (which is ISO Standard 13616) and is currently available in eight languages.IBAN Validation Service Sourcecode
The TBG5 validation service source code is available for reuse on other websites.History of EDIFACT and UN CEFACT TBG5
The cross-sectorial project which is now called UN CEFACT started in 1987 under a multitude of nicknames such as EDI, JEDI, etc. Around 1988 UNECE formally sponsored the ISO recommendation aimed at achieving a universal common syntax and the acronym became EDIFACTEDIFACT
United Nations/Electronic Data Interchange For Administration, Commerce and Transport is the international EDI standard developed under the United Nations...
(Electronic Data Exchange For Administration Commerce and Transport). The word "transport" was adopted over the originally proposed "trade" which – in Oxford English – is synonym to Commerce).
In 1989 the concept of EDIFACT, the cross-sectorial messaging destined to permit end-to-end STP
Straight Through Processing
Straight-through processing enables the entire trade process for capital markets and payment transactions to be conducted electronically without the need for re-keying or manual intervention, subject to legal and regulatory restrictions...
communication between banks and their corporate customers was introduced to the financial sector during the SWIFT
Swift
The swifts are a family, Apodidae, of highly aerial birds. They are superficially similar to swallows, but are actually not closely related to passerine species at all; swifts are in the separate order Apodiformes, which they share with hummingbirds...
SIBOS conference held in Stockholm through a joint corporate and bank panel presentation. Attendance at this session was overwhelming (remote television screens had to be installed outside the packed meeting room) however incompatibility between EDIFACT and SWIFT syntax prevented any further progress until XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
syntax enabled stakeholders in the standardisation process to resume contacts.
The EDIFACT organisation was initially based on separate, autonomous regions around the globe, i.e. Western Europe, the Americas and Australasia, with Eastern Europe being a non-voting participant. Each approval and amendment had to accepted by the three regional communities, each officially represented by a distinct Rapporteur. Frequent disputes had to be discussed and sorted out during the semi-annual meetings called JRT (Joint Rapporteur Team) meetings. With the advent of email the EDIFACT organisation was centralised, especially the technical assessment working group, and the Regional Rapporteurs’ role was eventually reduced to nothing. Over time the EDIFACT organization was constituted by UNECE under its current name UN CEFACT TBG5.