Swift has pushed back a November deadline for structured postal addresses in ISO 20022 payment messages after several industry groups requested more time.
The industry agreed to adopt the requirement in 2023 as part of Standards Release 2026, but readiness remains uneven across all regions.
Swift will consult banks, central banks, payment market infrastructures, market practice groups and corporate clients before providing an update on the revised timing and approach by December at the latest.
All payment changes planned under the release have been deferred, with other updates to be phased in separately.
Changes covering securities, trade and other transaction areas will go live in the first quarter of 2027.
These include measures supporting the move to T+1 settlement in some markets, with an exact date expected by mid-September.
Structured addresses are intended to improve payment automation, compliance screening and transparency.
Institutions that have completed the necessary upgrades can already send the data across Swift’s network.
Swift encouraged financial institutions and domestic payment market infrastructures to continue preparing, noting that domestic adoption is important to the wider cross-border migration.
More than 98% of payment instructions on Swift now use ISO 20022 following the transition from the MT standard last year.
Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by mohammadhridoy_11 via Magnific
