What are the next scheduled requirements under ISO 20022?
Payment messages currently allow addresses as free text. As part of an industry-wide transition to ISO 20022 and new SWIFT payment standards, additional address information will be required for parties involved in cross-border payments. In practice, payment instructions will now need to include town/city and country in separate dedicated fields. This is what we call structured addresses.
The following information will be required for payees and remitters:
- Town/city
- Country
The following information will be required for payee banks and remitter banks:
- Town/city and country, or
- A valid Bank Identifier Code (BIC) or Routing Code.
Those new standards aim to improve the quality, consistency, and transparency of payment information exchanged between financial institutions globally.