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Rich, structured data is fundamental to the future of cross-border payments, enabling greater automation, more effective compliance screening and improved transparency and services for end customers. Swift is strongly committed to ISO 20022 as the foundation for that future and is supporting the industry throughout its multi-year migration journey.

More than 98% of payment instructions are now sent in the ISO 20022 format, following the transition from the MT standard last year, putting the industry in a strong position as it moves forward.

As momentum builds across the community, preparations are under way for a critical milestone in November 2026. This milestone is pivotal to enabling rich, structured data and unlocking the full benefits of the ISO 20022 migration. After 14 November 2026, unstructured addresses will be removed. Only fully structured or hybrid postal addresses will be accepted.

As the global payments community continues its transition to ISO 20022, attention is now turning to the next priorities in the migration – including payment cancellations and exceptions and investigations (E&I). Learn what you need to do to prepare for this important milestone.

The migration to CBPR+ ISO 20022 for payment instructions is behind us – November 2025 was a huge milestone, and we saw a very successful end of coexistence where the community achieved a massive 97% adoption rate after the big weekend.

However, the story doesn’t end there, there is still a way to go with the rest of the CBPR+ roadmap.

As the global payments community continues its transition to ISO 20022, the new global standard for cross-border payments, a new milestone is on the horizon. A key component of the transition will be the removal of unstructured postal addresses, planned for November 2026 as part of the SR 2026 standards release.

This change has been requested by our community and reflects the continued evolution of ISO 20022 towards structured data that supports more precise filtering, improved monitoring and higher levels of automation in payments processing.

We are committed to delivering this change in November 2026 and to supporting the community throughout the transition.

In 2025, the global financial community counted on Swift more than ever. We saw double-digit traffic growth and a new record of over 68 million messages exchanged in a single day.

It’s a trust we never take for granted, and why we are relentlessly focused on operational excellence and committed to working together to continuously raise the bar on the transaction experience. As a community we made strong progress across many fronts in 2025, taking big strides to embed rich data, accelerate payment speed, and embrace a dynamic future of digital finance.

Read on to discover some of the highlights.

The global financial community has reached a major milestone: ISO 20022 is now the standard language for cross-border payments worldwide.

ISO 20022 elevates customer experience in today’s fiat currency system in support of the G20 goals for international payments, enabling faster, more efficient and data-driven payments. The move also will lay the foundations for the future of digital transactions while boosting operational efficiency and compliance, deepening customer insights and taking the end-user experience to the next level.

On 22 November 2025, the coexistence period between MT and ISO 20022 messages for cross-border payments and reporting (CBPR+) ended, marking the start of a new era of richer, more structured payments data.

From 29 September to 2 October 2025, a record 12,400 participants came to Frankfurt to attend Sibos 2025. With the event now a month behind us, we reflect on what was discussed at this fantastic event.

Thousands of institutions are already reaping the benefits of migrating to ISO 20022. But some upcoming ISO 20022 deadlines require careful planning, including the move from unstructured to structured postal data. Here’s how we're helping financial institutions make this transition as smoothly as possible.

It’s time to focus to the end of coexistence for ISO 20022 for CBPR+, which is just around the corner.

Four, three, two, one… the end of coexistence for ISO 20022 for CBPR+ is almost here.

As the financial sector rapidly approaches the November 2025 CBPR+ deadline, adopting the ISO 20022 global payment standard has never been more essential. With the industry moving forward, now is the time to act.