P27 – New Nordic payments platform

The P27 project is a shared, modern platform for payments within the Nordic region.
Building

What does it involve?

A Nordic initiative 

The P27 Nordic Payments Platform is a Nordic initiative, through which the goal is to create shared, modern and future-proof infrastructure for payments in the Nordic region. This is a collaborative project involving the banking industry, with the objective of promoting trade between the Nordic countries by facilitating real-time, cross-border payments. For Handelsbanken, this represents a major initiative, and preparatory measures for the transformation that P27 will entail are currently a major focus area.

The existing infrastructure for payments is outdated, and a more flexible, modern platform is needed. As a customer, you will notice, and be able to benefit from, the changes that the P27 project will bring in the next few years. 

Further down the page, you can find information about how P27 will affect you as a customer, the time schedule, and what you will need to do.

At present, the P27 Nordic Payments platform is awaiting the necessary licences from public authorities in order for its operations to start up. The information on this page is conditional upon the company being granted these licences.

You will find answers to the most common questions regarding P27 at the bottom of this page.

Advantages of the new platform

  • A stable system with a high operational reliability
  • Improved existing payment services
  • Enables new payment types
  • New services can be introduced faster

What can I do if I don’t find the answer to my question here?


The transition to ISO - The international format standard

On 1 April 2022, Handelsbanken will switch over to the ISO formats and in this video you will learn what file changes you might need to do. Also the system vendor Pagero describes their conversion services.

What changes are coming within payment messaging? 

Learn about the international file standard that will be used by P27 from experts from Handelsbanken and the system vendor Fortnox. What is ISO 20022 and what benefits does the ISO standard bring?

How will the new payments platform affect me as a customer?

Initially, the transition to the new payments platform will not involve any major changes for our private customers. You will be able to carry out your invoice/supplier payments to both Bankgiro and Plusgiro as usual. Swish will also work as usual, as will payments for salaries, pensions and benefits. However, you may notice a number of improvements to these services. You will be able to include a longer text in the reference field, for example, and payments will be carried out faster. 

For corporate customers, the new payments platform will lead to certain changes. Further down the page you will find information about how these changes will affect your company. 

In the long run, the new payments platform will mean that new services can be introduced. Several are already in the pipeline, and others will be developed by the banks and other creative players on the market.

Among the services already planned are improved possibilities for carrying out real-time payments (instant), and a new service which involves the presentation and payment of invoices, which will eventually replace the Bankgiro direct debit and e-invoice services.

Once the P27 project has been introduced in all the Nordic countries, these payment services will run smoothly across national borders, irrespective of the currency you wish to use.

 fulfilled criterias

Time schedule     

The P27 project will be ongoing for several years, in many different stages. The first part of the migration relates to payments in SEK within Sweden, and will run between 2022 and 2025. The migration from the payments platform used by Swedish banks to P27 is led by a transformation committee within the Swedish Bankers’ Association. You can read more about the new payments platform and the migration at 

P27 Nordic PaymentsOpens in a new window and Svenska BankföreningenOpens in a new window


What do you need to do?

For private individuals, the introduction of P27 will not result in any major changes. Corporate customers that use file communication with the Bank will notice the changes the most, as a new file format may be required. An important part of the planned transition is that file communication must take place using the ISO 20022 format standard. Older formats will thus be phased out. Our recommendation is that you contact your system provider to ensure that your business system can be adapted to the planned changes in payments infrastructure (P27-compatible)

If your business system is linked to Handelsbanken via Bankintegration or Affärstjänster, you don’t have to do anything. We will make sure that your automated procedures continue to work during the transition. If the system doesn’t meet the new requirements, it must be further developed. If this is not possible, the system must be replaced. In this case, we can recommend one of the systems that are integrated with Handelsbanken via Bankintegration or Affärstjänster.

Bankintegration (Bank integration, in Swedish only)
Affärstjänster (Business services, in Swedish only)

Corporates

Direct file communication with Bankgiro will be closed down

If you use direct file communication with Bankgiro (usually BGLink), you will need to change this solution, as Bankgiro will be replaced by P27. In the future, all communication is to go through the banks. If you don’t already have a communications solution with your bank, you will need to arrange this. 

New file formats in accordance with ISO standard

In conjunction with the transition to P27, the modern, internationally established ISO 20022 format standard is to be used for payment files. This will replace the main local file formats used for domestic payments/payment information in Sweden, for example, LB, KI, and BGMax.

The first old file formats to be phased out will be LB, KI, and UTLI/SISU. This will take place in Q1 2022. More information is available under the section for System providers.

Management of credit notes

Following the transition to ISO 20022 and the Nordic Payments Council (NPC) regulations, the management of credit notes will change. Payment orders must state a positive amount. This means that single credit notes cannot be entered into the banking system. A credit note can still be part of a payment, but the monitoring and settlement must be handled by your own system. Hence, if credit notes are part of a payment, this must not result in the payment amount being zero, or negative.

More detailed references

With the new standard, more detailed, structured references can be included. This may be useful for the sender, as well as the beneficiary. As a result of the changes, beneficiaries may need to review their systems and procedures for reconciliation of ledgers and bank accounts.

Business systems compatible with P27

The majority of the above changes fall within areas which are normally managed by, and therefore, affect, your business system or accounting system. This is why it’s important to check your system’s compatibility with P27 as soon as possible.

If the system already handles communication in accordance with the ISO 20022 standard, few adaptations are likely to be needed. If the supplier is not able to ensure that the system can be adapted, or the current system was developed internally, you should consider changing to another system. In this case, the best alternative is to select a suitable system which has established communications with Handelsbanken via Bankintegration or Affärstjänster. 

AffärstjänsterOpens in a new window (in Swedish only)
BankintegrationOpens in a new window (in Swedish only)

Irrespective of the solution you choose, Handelsbanken will assist you and your system provider to carry out the adaptations that may be needed.

Questions and answers about P27