Swift's Address Deadline Slips as Banks Struggle with Structured Data

Swift's ISO 20022 migration is nearing completion, with over 98% of payment instructions now using the new format. However, a crucial aspect of the transition has slipped behind schedule: banks' customer data. The deadline for unstructured postal addresses in payment messages was initially set for November 14, 2026, but Swift later acknowledged that large parts of the industry were still unable to meet the structured-address requirement.

A structured address separates a customer's building number, street, city, and country into machine-readable fields. This change is considered more consequential than the original deadline, as it affects how banks interpret information throughout a correspondent-banking chain. The ISO 20022 format does not necessarily mean that payment messages are fully compliant with the standard.

The migration's impact on XRP has been exaggerated, according to Bull Runners. They argue that the transition was largely completed by November 2025 and did not trigger any unusual price reactions in XRP. Ripple's membership in the ISO 20022 standards body does not directly imply that XRP is ISO 20022 compliant.

Swift will consult banks, central banks, market infrastructures, and corporate users to set a new deadline for payment-message changes. An update is expected by December at the latest. The host frames this as more relevant than the original address deadline, which has slipped even further behind schedule.