Overview of TBG5

The International Trade and Business Procedures Group (TBG) responsible for Finance standardisation and trade facilitate is commonly known as TBG5. TBG5 forms part of the parent group UN/CEFACT/TBG which has the purpose of undertaking a long-term program of work to support the development of trade facilitation and electronic business solutions across a comprehensive number of vertical trade domains, of which Finance is just one.

TBG5 has been operational for many years and to its credit is probably the first International standards group to engage with both banks and bank clients (corporates) to develop common collaborative solutions. Today those solutions based on UN/EDIFACT are still widely used and maintained by the Corporate Reference Group (CRG) within TBG5. Today TBG5 is seen known as the international co-ordination point for banks, corporates, infrastructures and other stakeholders to work collaboratively on matters of standardisation.

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. This objective is reflected in a formal Memorandum of Understanding between ISO TC68 and TBG5, to which SWIFT is also co-signatory.

The evolving role of TBG5 is to facilitate dialogue in one place between banks, corporates and other significant stakeholders such as regulators or public sector authorities to encourage and promote the adoption of robust international standards and solutions which are open, interoperable and global in their scope.