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Show HN: Iso20022.js – Create payments in 3 lines of code

iso20022js.com

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Re: Show HN: Iso20022.js – Create payments in 3 lines of code

#61

XML Schema Definitions for all ISO20022 messages are public: https://www.iso20022.org/iso-20022-message-definitions There are tools that can turn the schema files into POJO/dataclasses/structs/etc in your language of choice, sometimes with proper data validation. Not sure about Typescript, but Java/Python/Golang definitely have those. It may very well be lost knowledge in certain ecosystems, but generating a valid XM…

Yeah exactly, with Go this should literally just be the type definition and that's it. You can do XML marshal, byte reader and http request with the standard library

Re: Show HN: Iso20022.js – Create payments in 3 lines of code

#62

So regarding ISO 20022 it is just a format for what is sent and read so each party have a common format to use (this is only partially true as institutions like making their own variant of it thats valid ISO 20022, think yaml vs json). Sending it is a completely different story, different financial institutions use different technologies for authentication and transport of these messages (SFTP, SWIFT, exotic custom s…

That's true, ISO20022 was designed to be extensible, meaning banks add their own crazy variants to it all the time. Currently iso20022.js can create a minimum viable working ISO20022 file, and in the future I'd love to support as many specs as we reasonably can

Re: Show HN: Iso20022.js – Create payments in 3 lines of code

#65
post #52

What is an API/service we can use this encoder/serializer with? This seems like a part of the puzzle.

Thanks for asking MuffinFlavored. There isn't something we are currently offering yet, althoug I wrote about how this works in the quickstart guide: https://docs.iso20022js.com/quickstart#step-4-send-the-payme...

To expand for people who might not be as familiar, dropping the XML file on SFTP is common in fintec land.

How do you get a response/know if your file processed correctly?

Re: Show HN: Iso20022.js – Create payments in 3 lines of code

#66
post #59

This looks pretty interesting, but my only experience with payments are black-box payment processors that expose an API, and services like Stripe that handle all of the institutional interconnection. Could you help me understand who the target devs are for this library? I doubt it's someone like me, who would try to use it as a replacement for stripe before realizing all of the stuff I have to do outside of that and…

Hey catapart, thanks for your comment. You're right. Accepting credit card payments over the internet is usually done handled by black-box third party payment processors. Bank payments, like ACH, SWIFT, and others are usually built in-house by companies that move money at scale, like payroll providers, insurance companies, and other old school institutions. As companies that do heavy financial management refresh thei…

At the risk of sounding like an a-hole, there's a very important word there... "if".

Re: Show HN: Iso20022.js – Create payments in 3 lines of code

#67
post #2

Hey HN, My name is Svapnil Ankolkar and I've recently built iso20022.js, a library for creating ISO20022 payments in Typescript. The goal of this project is to be the easiest way to create, and eventually ingest, files in the ISO20022 standard, the defacto XML standard for bank payments. I'd love to know what you think and importantly know about any improvements you'd like us to make!

Support SEPA and its national variants.

Support bank statements.

Re: Show HN: Iso20022.js – Create payments in 3 lines of code

#68
post #46
post #36

The problem with this standard is all the free text and bank specific fields that banks will use instead of the standard. One bank I integrated with had the equivalent of "Our fee is 5.65" in a text field which you had to parse, instead of the field for fees. Of course, the language of that string could also change. Fun times

That does sound really really fun.. What's great about XML is that free text / bank specific fields can be handled elegantly with XML's extensible structure. That is why I think ISO20022 is here to stay. That said, this library is made to be extensible. One day I think it will even be able to encapsulate any type of bank. For example, imagine bofaISO20022.createACHPaymentInitation or something

What XML has to do with bank-specific messages that have to be parsed and processed? It’s just a markup format.

Re: Show HN: Iso20022.js – Create payments in 3 lines of code

#70

The difficult thing about payments is not necessarily formatting payment instructions to ISO20022, but rather setting up the underlying infrastructure like: - Shelving a Windows box in some authorized datacenter. - Going through a years long process of getting certified to send payment instructions to the scheme (e.g. SWIFT network). - Receiving a couple of USB sticks that contain certificates and signing keys. - Con…

Thanks for your comment phillippta, I agree with you there are a few big challenges in setting up payments companies need to deal with:

1. Security Adding vendors is a very scary thing for companies, rightfully so. Open source is great for this, because an NPM package is not a vendor.

2. Signing / Sending a Transaction iso20022.js doesn't deal with message sending yet. Best case there is a straightforward SFTP setup, which I've given instructions for here: https://docs.iso20022js.com/quickstart#step-4-send-the-payme...

3. Getting certified to send payment instructions. This should be the work of the module!

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