ISO 20022 standard: what structured addresses change in your payments
Your third-party addresses are becoming banking data in their own right
A credit transfer can be rejected not because of a wrong IBAN, but because of an incomplete beneficiary address.
The ISO 20022 standard requires third-party addresses to be sent in identified fields rather than in two lines of free text. The 15 November 2026 deadline has been lifted: Swift deferred the rule on its network and committed to publishing a new timeline by December 2026 at the latest, then the European Payments Council did the same for SEPA credit transfers and direct debits. No new date has been set so far. The rule itself does not change, and neither does the work to be done.
In a nutshell: the ISO 20022 standard requires the address in a payment order to include at least the town and country in dedicated fields, which means complete third-party records and up-to-date payment software.
1. What the standard changes in your payment orders
ISO 20022 is the international standard that defines the structure of the files exchanged between a company, its bank and payment infrastructures. For a company, its practical effect can be summed up in one sentence: a third party's address can no longer be a simple series of free-text lines.
Two formats are accepted. A fully structured address splits the street, postcode, town and country into dedicated fields. A hybrid address keeps two lines of free text, but the town and country must appear in separate fields, and the European Payments Council has set no end date for it so far. Only fully unstructured addresses are due to disappear, with the fully structured address remaining the long-term target.
A common misconception: the standard does not only apply to international payments. It covers SEPA credit transfers and direct debits, and therefore the vast majority of your supplier payments and customer collections.
2. Where does the timeline stand?
The end of unstructured addresses was set for November 2026, both for interbank exchanges and for the files companies submit to their banks. Three decisions lifted it. On 27 August 2026, Swift deferred all the payment changes planned on its network. The European Central Bank then allowed unstructured addresses, for a limited period, in messages of the European settlement system T2. Finally, on 9 September 2026, the European Payments Council postponed the 15 November 2026 deadline for SEPA credit transfers and direct debits.
The Council had announced a further meeting in October 2026 to set a new end date. As of 28 October 2026, none has been published, and its guidance document on addresses, updated on 30 September 2026, refers to an end date that is still to be set. Swift, for its part, has committed to presenting its new timeline by December 2026 at the latest.
This postponement changes nothing about what needs to be done. The European Payments Council, Swift and the European Central Bank all encourage every stakeholder to keep up their migration efforts. The European Payments Council even recommends moving directly to fully structured addresses wherever possible. An address cleaned up now will remain compliant whatever date is eventually set.
Key takeaway: the date that binds you is the one your bank gives you in writing. Some banks are already telling their customers to expect a switch-over during 2027: check what yours plans, including on its own file transmission channels.
3. Two checks to carry out right away
They depend neither on the final date nor on your software version, and they account for most of the workload.
Two workstreams independent of the timeline
Practical tip: start with the third parties you have actually paid over the last twelve months. An export of records with no town or no country is enough to measure the volume to be reworked, often far lower than the total number of records.
What about software?
Producing a compliant file requires the tool that generates payment orders to be able to write these fields. Depending on the publisher and version, this capability is built in, added through an update, or missing. For Sage 100 Moyens de paiement, the publisher states that the standard is supported from version 12.2 onwards: an earlier installation requires an upgrade, to be planned with your service provider and completed with an end-to-end test with your bank.
FAQ: ISO 20022 standard and structured addresses
What is the ISO 20022 standard for payment orders?
What is the deadline for switching to structured addresses?
Which fields are mandatory in a third-party record?
Will my credit transfer be rejected if the address is incomplete?
Do I need to upgrade my payment software?
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In conclusion: we can support you
Proges Plus is a Sage competence centre for financial management and payroll, as publisher and integrator of Synoptic ERP.
In this capacity, we support our customers in becoming compliant: reviewing your software version, preparing your third-party data and handling exchanges with your bank.
