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 ISOTC68 and TBG5, to which SWIFT is
also co-signatory.
The evolving role of TBG5 is to facilitate dialogue in one place between banks, coporates 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.