Swift defers SR2026 and the end of unstructured addresses

Swift (network) is the messaging network that banks use to send payment instructions across borders. Its cross-border payment messages follow ISO 20022, a data-rich message standard, under the usage rules called CBPR+ (Cross-Border Payments and Reporting Plus) (Swift news (external site)).

Each message carries the postal addresses of the payer and the payee. Swift planned to stop accepting unstructured addresses, written as free lines of text, from 14 November 2026, and has now postponed that step (Swift news (external site)).

A structured postal address puts each part in its own field: street, building number, postcode, town and country. A fully structured address needs at least a country and a town name (Swift on the removal of unstructured addresses (external site)).

As an illustrative example only: the free line "10 Market Street, Lyon, France" becomes separate fields for street name, building number, town and country. A hybrid address keeps town and country in fields and allows up to two free lines for the rest (hybrid postal address guidance (external site)).

Swift will defer all payments changes of its Standards Release 2026 (SR2026) and will give an update on the structured address timing by December 2026 at the latest (Swift news (external site)). Until then, unstructured addresses stay accepted.

The non-payment part of SR2026 goes ahead on 12 June 2027. It covers MT messages except Category 1, ISO 20022 securities and funds messages, tracker messages, and exceptions and investigations messages (Swift news (external site)).

The change concerns banks, payment institutions and market infrastructures that send or receive cross-border payment messages over Swift (Swift news (external site)).

• Payments Messaging Specialist (SWIFT): replans the address changes and the testing of the deferred release.
• Payments Operations Analyst: repairs or returns payments whose address data fails the new rules.
• Sanctions Analyst: screens names against towns and countries held in separate fields.
• Data Governance Analyst: sets quality rules for client address data at its source.
• Corporate Onboarding Analyst (KYC): captures client addresses in structured form at onboarding.
• Trade Finance Operations Specialist: plans for the trade message changes in the June 2027 release.

• Standards Release 2025: the hybrid address option was introduced, with a one-year transition (Swift CBPR+ roadmap (external site)).
• 14 November 2026: original end of unstructured addresses, now postponed (Swift milestone news (external site)).
• By December 2026: Swift update on the new address date (expected).
• 12 June 2027: deferred SR2026 for non-payment messages (confirmed).

The Eurosystem shifted its own November 2026 releases to 28 November 2026 and allowed unstructured addresses in T2 for a limited period (ECB (external site)).

Swift links structured address data to Recommendation 16 of the Financial Action Task Force, which sets the payer and payee information that travels with a transfer (Swift questions and answers on the removal (external site)).

Structured fields let banks along the payment chain read the town and country of each party automatically. Swift accepted a request from its community for more time before making them mandatory (Swift news (external site)).