Following the European Payments Council (EPC) and SWIFT decision to postpone the discontinuation of unstructured addresses, the announced changes will not take effect on 15 November 2026.
After 15 November 2026:
- ISO XML 2009 (pain.001.001.03 and pain.002.001.03) will remain supported, including unstructured addresses.
- ISO XML 2019 (pain.001.001.09 and pain.002.001.10) will remain available and become the recommended format. Structured and hybrid addresses will be supported.
- Other payment file formats (.txt, .csv) will remain available, including the use of unstructured addresses.
Although the changes have been postponed, compliance will become mandatory at a later date. We recommend migrating to ISO XML 2019 as soon as possible to ensure uninterrupted payment initiation via file upload.
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 files, please ensure that your beneficiary data includes the new minimum requirements – town name (TwnNm) and country code (Ctry). We recommend clarifying this information with your payees if necessary.
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.
If your company database does not store city name and country code as separate fields, please contact your system provider and clarify how to implement these fields.
Support
You can find additional resources here:
Frequently Asked Questions
Unstructured address
- Can be used already
- 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 already
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
Providing address information is not mandatory, although it is recommended to do so in order to ensure that your payment operations are always processed successfully. If you are choosing not to provide any address information, please ensure that wrapper element PstlAdr is not present within the payment file.
This change will ultimately affect all payment types why we recommend you cover all types from start when working on your 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 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.
