On 22 November 2025, the global payments system reached a turning point. After years of preparation, delays, testing cycles and phased adoption, cross-border payments on Swift completed their migration to ISO 20022, the new global messaging standard that replaces the decades-old MT format.
For consumers, this moment passed quietly. But for banks, PSPs, acquirers and corporates – it marked the start of a fundamentally different way of communicating payment data.
What actually changed on 22 November 2025?
The end of the coexistence period
Swift’s Cross-Border Payments and Reporting Plus (CBPR+) went live with ISO 20022 in March 2023 and ran a three-year coexistence period, where banks could continue sending traditional MT messages while preparing for ISO 20022. That window closed on 22 November 2025.
From this date:
- MT categories 1, 2 and 9 (including MT103, MT202, MT940) are are retired for cross-border bank-to-bank payment and cash-management messages under CBPR+.
- Cross-border bank-to-bank payments must now exchange ISO 20022 messages only.
- Financial institutions relying on in-flow translation or fallback MT sending face operational risk and higher costs from 2026.
The wider ecosystem around Swift
By the time the deadline arrived, other major infrastructures had already migrated or aligned their timelines:
| TARGET (T2) | Migrated March 2023 |
| EURO1 | Migrated March 2023, aligned with T2 |
| CHAPS (UK) | Adopted ISO 20022 in June 2023, with structured data requirements phased in 2024-2025 |
| CHIPS (US) | Migrated April 2024 |
| Fedwire Funds Service (US) | Cutover completed July 2025 |
This wave of migrations means high-value payment systems for major reserve currencies are now aligned on the same modern data standard, which is a key building block for better cross-border interoperability. And for the first time, most of the world’s key high-value payment infrastructures are speaking the same language.
What this means for speed and efficiency
Faster and more accurate screening
ISO 20022 messages carry structured party data, addresses and identifiers instead of long text lines. This makes it easier for banks and PSPs to:
☑️ run sanctions and AML checks
☑️ locate the right name, country or ID field
☑️ reduce reliance on inconsistent interpretations and manual investigations
Fewer false positives
Banks report that once they process payments in native ISO 20022 (rather than mapping MT fields), the reduction in false positives is meaningful, lowering manual workloads and improving throughput.
Higher straight-through processing (STP)
ISO 20022 reduces manual repairs and raises STP rates by carrying all the required fields for routing, compliance and reconciliation in one message. With richer data available upfront, payment engines can process transactions without additional intervention.
More predictable settlement
Because ISO 20022 is now used consistently across the world’s major high-value payment systems, settlement becomes:
☑️ more predictable
☑️ less prone to data truncation
☑️ transparent across intermediaries
☑️ aligned with consistent cut-off times
Foundation for instant cross-border in the future
ISO 20022 is a key infrastructure for future cross-border improvements. It gives different payment systems a common data language, even if their technologies differ.
ISO 20022 itself does not make payments instant, but it provides:
☑️ a unified data standard
☑️ shared semantics
☑️ clearer regulatory fields
☑️ improved routing information
Basically, it sets the foundation for faster and more predictable cross-border payments in the future.
What it means for PSPs, acquirers and merchants
Cleaner data means better reconciliation
ISO 20022 enables richer, structured remittance data through:
☑️ dedicated remittance tags
☑️ longer field lengths
☑️ standardised identifiers
☑️ payer references
That allows:
☑️ fewer unidentified incoming payments
☑️ easier invoice matching
☑️ less manual work for finance teams
☑️ cleaner marketplace and platform payouts
And for merchants – clearer data directly improves cash flow predictability.
More predictable payouts
As more banks and infrastructures adopt ISO 20022 natively, PSPs can access more transparently structured data in settlement reports and surface this data in dashboards and exports.
This allows PSPs to give merchants:
☑️ clearer breakdowns of fees
☑️ easier visibility on value dates
☑️ improved understanding of payout timelines
☑️ more detailed reporting exports
☑️ cleaner API-delivered reconciliation files
Improved fraud detection
ISO 20022 messages include fields that support stronger AML and CTF controls, enabling PSPs to improve detection while keeping false positives low. For merchants, this translates into smoother payment flows and fewer unnecessary holds.
Easier integration for PSPs
ISO 20022’s structured and globally consistent data model reduces friction when integrating with:
☑️ multiple banking partners
☑️ card schemes applying ISO 20022 to settlement flows
☑️ real-time payment networks
☑️ treasury systems
☑️ ERP platforms
PSPs that invest in ISO-native APIs will reduce long-term maintenance and accelerate time-to-market when entering new countries or payment channels.
Opportunity to build new services around structured data
The real competitive advantage of ISO 20022 lies in what new services PSPs and acquirers can build with the data, such as:
- Automated reconciliation tools that match ISO 20022 payment data directly to ERP and invoicing systems.
- Enhanced settlement analytics (e.g. by geography, customer type, purpose code).
- Richer customer reporting for treasury teams, including liquidity and FX insights.
- Better dispute and investigation flows, using ISO 20022 status and receipt messages as they come into use.
A new payments era
For most consumers, nothing visibly changed on 22 November 2025. But behind the scenes, the way banks, PSPs and financial institutions communicate has undergone a fundamental upgrade. And this is just the beginning. As banks, PSPs and acquirers start using the enhanced data meaningfully, payments will continue to become faster, clearer, more predictable and more transparent.
ISO 20022 will shape the next decade of global payments. And the work happening now is what will unlock its full potential.
If you’d like to understand what comes next and how ISO 20022 enables instant payments and future tech – stay tuned for our next blog post. And follow us on LinkedIn for updates and insights.
