ISO 20022 for Payments for Financial Institutions

The payments industry is in transition, converging from a wide variety of legacy message and data formats to ISO 20022: a common, global, end-to-end standard.

ISO 20022 adoption is a cornerstone of the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) agenda to improve cross-border payments.

In 2020, the G20 set quantifiable targets to enhance cross-border payments, which the public and private sectors are rallying around.

A significant milestone on the road to faster payments is the industry’s migration to ISO 20022 by High-Value Payment Systems and across the Swift network for cross-border payments and reporting. This is key to increasing straight-through processing, in particular when handling financial crime compliance.

The coexistence period is scheduled to end on 22 November 2025, and this date was reconfirmed for cross-border bank-to-bank payment instructions by the Swift Board in June 2024.

Swift and the Board urge members to reinforce their efforts to switch cross-border payment instructions (at minimum) to ISO 20022 by that date and prioritise their readiness plans in anticipation of it. Swift will continue to provide resources to support the community in achieving this important milestone.