ISO 20022 for corporates

ISO 20022 is key to transforming the payments industry, improving transparency and security to support financial transactions and provide richer and more structured data.

What is ISO 20022?

Despite the rapid evolution of technology over the last 40 years, messaging formats have remained largely unchanged.

Finally, the world’s biggest payment schemes, banks and SWIFT are coming together to adopt a single messaging standard across the globe, ISO 20022 XML.

Over time, this XML format will be used across the payments ecosystem, becoming the dominant messaging format.

Read the video transcript

Every business day, millions of transactions are completed across the world.

But sending and receiving payments between different schemes can still be challenging.

ISO 20022 is about to change that.

It’s the new global standard to make electronic payment messages more easily understood across the globe.

ISO 20022 provides much richer payment data that could enable businesses to improve reconciliations, consolidate transactions, achieve efficiencies, and get great insights on their customers’ behaviour.

Banks and market infrastructures like SWIFT are migrating to ISO 20022.

Getting ready to meet the new payment data requirements will be a big undertaking.

As a minimum, corporates will need to check the impacts of ISO on their payments and reconciliations and whether they need to update internal systems.

At Barclays, we’re on the ISO 20022 journey.

We’re here to help you stay ahead of the payment revolution.

Master the basics of ISO 20022 now

barclayscorporate.com

Migration timeline

Please note: Migration timelines are subject to changes based on industry developments and specific market guidance. Barclays does not accept liability for the accuracy of the dates mentioned.

SWIFT

Migration started March 2023. MX and MT formats co-exist until 2025.

Euro High Value

Migration completed March 2023.

UK – CHAPS

Migration completed June 2023.

SEPA

Migration completed in April 2024

US – CHIPS

Migration completed in April 2024

US - Fedwire

Migration begins March 2025.

What does this mean for corporates?

Today, a lot of payment information is captured in an unstructured format and there are restrictions on the amount of data we can include within the payment message. ISO 20022 XML introduces richer data into payment flows and provides better structure to the way data is captured in these messages.

Whilst most corporates are not required to migrate to the new XML format, it is mandatory for Barclays and other financial institutions to use XML. As we support clients through this transition and minimise disruption from this industry-wide change, we may need you to provide richer data to process your transactions with Barclays.

Clients using SWIFT for Corporate can continue to use SWIFT MT formats as they are not being decommissioned for corporate users.

What are the enhanced data requirements?

Even if you choose not to migrate to the new XML format, ISO 20022 introduces some new data requirements which will require your attention.

For any business using CHAPS, Cross Border or Euro High Value payments, the introduction of structured addresses and remittance information will impact you. For CHAPS payments, you will need to start including purpose codes, beginning with certain types of property transactions.

These changes will all support a more frictionless payment process.

Terms you need to know

Purpose codes are codes which are added to the payment instruction to describe the reason for making a payment.

Structured remittance information will introduce standardised formats for remittance information relating to your transactions.

Structured and hybrid addresses will standardise the way addresses are captured.

A Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) is a reference code which uniquely identifies a distinct legal entity, that engages in a financial transaction.

Sterling: CHAPS

Feature	From June 2023 (CHAPS Live)	From 1 May 2025	From November 2025	From November 2026	End state
Purpose code	Strongly recommended for Property Transactions, otherwise Encouraged	Mandatory for Property Transaction and FI to FI; otherwise Encouraged	Mandatory for Property Transaction and FI to FI; otherwise Encouraged	Mandatory for Property Transaction and FI to FI; otherwise Encouraged	Mandatory
Legal Entity Identifier	Encouraged	Encouraged	Encouraged	Encouraged	Encouraged
Structured Remittance information	Encouraged for domestic payments	Encouraged for domestic payments	Encouraged for domestic payments	Encouraged for domestic payments	Mandatory from November 2027
Addresses	Structured address encouraged	Structured address encouraged	Structured, unstructured and hybrid address formats supported	Only structured or hybrid address formats supported Use of unstructured will cause payment rejections	Only structured and hybrid address formats supported

*Industry developments, Barclays solutions and timelines are subject to change. Barclays does not accept liability for the accuracy of the dates mentioned.

What are the benefits of migrating to ISO 20022?

If you do choose to migrate to the new XML format, you can expect to get a more efficient and standardised payments experience, both domestically and across the globe.

Although the change is driven by payment schemes and SWIFT, there are many other benefits your organisation and customers could gain by migrating to ISO 20022 XML.

Operational efficiencies / innovation opportunity

Enhanced data available to you may have potential benefits for improving your reconciliation and cash flow forecasting.

Reduced costs

By streamlining processes, you can be more efficient in managing and organising your data and require less manual intervention, ultimately saving costs in maintenance.

Better Analytics

Richer, more structured data offers opportunities to better capture data which can help inform decision making.

Transparency

More granular, quality data ultimately improves transparency and can lead to a better experience for customers and end users.

What do you need to do?

How to prepare

We recommend that all clients take the time to evaluate the impact this new standard could have on their business and consider the benefits of migrating to XML formats.

Even if you choose not to use XML, it is likely you will need to consider how your business will manage the new data elements listed above.

Barclays are here to support you through this major change across the industry. Please contact your relationship team for more information about the ISO 20022 transition and how we can support your individual needs.

ISO 20022 Checklist

Check if you use CHAPS, International or Euro High Value payments to understand if you will be subject to new data requirements

Review your internal systems to ensure the new data elements can be captured correctly

Engage with your treasury and payments systems providers for support

Check if your suppliers will make changes to the information in their invoices.

FAQs FAQs
Blogs Blogs
Useful Links Useful Links
Further Support Further Support

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FAQs
- MX refers to XML (Extensible Mark-up Language) messages across the SWIFT network to distinguish them from MT messages.
  
  Please note you may see the terms MX and ISO 20022 used interchangeably within the marketplace.
- This migration is going to impact all major payment schemes and currencies. The major payment schemes, that Barclays is impacted by, migrating to ISO 20022 are:
  
  CHAPS
  
  Euro payment schemes (this consists of: EURO1, STEP1, TARGET2),
  
  Cross-border payments (i.e. SWIFT)
  
  SEPA payments and collections
  
  International payment clearing schemes (e.g. US Fed/CHIPS and Hong Kong Interbank Clearing)
  
  Pay.UK (Faster Payment and Bacs) – migration date to be confirmed.
  
  Industry developments, Barclays solutions and timelines are subject to change. Barclays does not accept liability for the accuracy of the dates mentioned.
- The Bank of England has introduced four enhanced data fields, with new requirements for population and formatting, within domestic CHAPS payments, these are:
  
  Purpose codes
  
  Legal Entity Identifiers
  
  Addresses
  
  Structured remittance information
  
  There are also enhanced data fields being introduced in Cross Border and Euro High Value payments:
  
  Legal Entity Identifiers
  
  Addresses
  
  Structured remittance information
  
  Further details on the detailed requirements and implementation dates are available under the ‘What are the enhanced data requirements?’ section.
- CHAPS has already started to introduce enhanced data in payments. Purpose codes for certain property finance transactions are available and encouraged for use today. These are mandatory from 1 May 2025 with strong encouragement to utilise a wider array of purpose codes from this date.
  
  CHAPS and Swift are both updating how they require addresses to be populated within payment messages. From November 2025, CHAPS and Swift will support addresses in structured, unstructured or hybrid formats. From November 2026, unstructured addresses will no longer be supported and will cause payment rejections
  
  Please note, hybrid address must contain the minimum structured address requirements of ‘Town Name’ and ‘Country’.
  
  Further detail on the enhanced data timeline can be located under the ‘what does this mean for corporates?’ section.
- Barclays is actively involved in conversations with ERP and TMS providers focused on the ISO 20022 migration. To understand any impacts to you as a result of changes your ERP or TMS providers are making, you should engage with them directly,
- Faster Payments and Bacs were due migrate to ISO 20022 under the New Payments Architecture (NPA) Programme being delivered by Pay.UK. The Programme has been paused by Pay.UK following delays and challenges. There is currently no timeline for migration.
- Currently we offer direct debit collections through Bacs and SEPA payment schemes. SEPA DD has upgraded to ISO 20022 in March 2024 introducing some enhancements to the format. There are currently no plans for when or what a Bacs migration may look like.
Blogs
It’s never too early to start preparing for the move to ISO 20022

When we talk about ISO 20022, we often reference “more structured and richer data”, but what does that mean as we get into the detail?

Read more

ISO 20022 - a new messaging standard for payments

Finally, the world’s biggest payment schemes, banks and SWIFT are coming together to adopt a single messaging standard across the globe, ISO 20022.

Read more
Useful Links
SWIFT
Introduction to the new standard, golden source for formatting specifications and online training resources.
Payments Market Practice Group^
The PMPG is an independent SWIFT advisory group, comprised of payments experts from around the globe.

European Central Bank^
This section of the ECB website is dedicated to the adoption of ISO20022.

Bank of England^
This section of the Bank of England website dedicated is to the adoption of ISO20022.

Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation^

ISO20022.org ^
Further Support
Please click below for further reference material.

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