Summary
we would like to provide an update regarding the changes to payment initiation via file upload that were previously communicated in June.
Following the decision by the European Payments Council (EPC) and SWIFT to postpone the discontinuation of unstructured addresses, the required changes announced by us in June will no longer take effect on 15 November 2026.
Which means that after 15 November 2026:
- Older ISO XML 2009 versions (pain.001.001.03 and pain.002.001.03) will continue to be supported and unstructured addresses may still be used.
- Newer ISO XML 2019 versions (pain.001.001.09 and pain.002.001.10) will remain available and will become our recommended version. Structured and hybrid addresses support will be retained.
Although the implementation of these changes has been postponed, compliance with the new requirements will still become mandatory at a later date. Therefore, we encourage you to migrate to the ISO XML 2019 formats at your earliest convenience, to ensure uninterrupted payment initiation via file upload in the future. In the meantime, both the old and new XML versions will continue to be accepted in parallel.
Please note that the information below contains technical details related to migration to ISO XML 2019 format. We recommend sharing this information with your company's IT specialists and accounting software providers.
Main changes coming with pain.001.001.09
- For RequestedExecutionDate sub-element Dt is added
- BICOrBEI is replaced with AnyBIC BIC is replaced with BICFI
- Postal address is changed to structured or hybrid
- If postal address detail are used, then at least TwnNm and Ctry values must be filled
How do I as a customer need to prepare?
If you initiate payments via file, please ensure that your vendor records include the new minimum requirements: Town Name and Country Code. If your payment counterparty data records do not currently include the Town Name and Country Code for these parties, please prioritise reaching out to your payees and begin collecting this information as soon as possible.
Review payment file generation: If not already done, update your payment initiation systems (ERP, TMS, host-to-host formats) to support ISO 20022 messaging with structured or hybrid postal address fields.
In case the town name and country code data is not at all available as separate fields in your master vendor data entries, please contact your system vendor and consult how to get the data fields available.
What is the purpose of this change?
This update is part of the global move to ISO 20022 standard, now being adopted by major financial network and clearing systems around the world. Switching to structured or hybrid addresses will:
- Improve data quality and reduce errors
- Increase straight through processing (STP) of your payments
- Align your processes with global payment standards
Support
You can find additional resources here:
Frequently Asked Questions
Unstructured address
- Can be used today
- Format - up to two AdrLine sub-elements
Structured address
- Can be used today
- Format – TwnNm and Ctry is mandatory to be used, additional structurized sub-elements can be used alongside
Hybrid address
- Can be used today
- Format – TwnNm and Ctry is mandatory to be used, up to two additional AdrLine sub-elements are permitted
- Alternative to Structured address, alongside pain.001.001.09 format
This change will ultimately affect all payment types why we recommend you cover all types from start when working on your vendor data and payment initiation file creation.
This is a worldwide industry change that affects all banks globally.
We recommend to conduct these changes as soon as possible, to prevent any difficulties with payment processing in the near future.
Yes, the minimum requirements are to enter the town name (TwnNm) and country code (Ctry), if you use the address field and enter an address in structured or hybrid format.
Yes, it does.
Yes, you are able to use our tool, which will help you to report any possible address structure errors in various payment types and their sample files.
This update is part of the global move to ISO 20022 standard, now being adopted by major financial network and clearing systems around the world. Switching to structured or hybrid addresses will:
- Improve data quality and reduce errors
- Increase straight through processing (STP) of your payments
- Align your processes with global payment standards.
