Payment repair is the manual or rule-based correction of a payment that cannot be processed automatically, for example because of a missing or invalid IBAN, BIC, name or address. Banks often charge a repair fee, and the share of payments needing repair is a measure of data quality and of straight-through processing.
Straight-through processing (STP)Straight-through processing (STP) is the end-to-end automated handling of a payment or trade, from initiation to settlement and booking, with no manual intervention. The STP rate, the share of transactions processed without a manual touch, is a key operations metric; breaks usually come from missing or badly formatted data.
Structured postal addressA structured postal address in ISO 20022 places each part of an address in its own field, such as street name, building number, post code, town name and country. The hybrid format allows some free text but requires town and country in their own fields. Swift planned to reject unstructured addresses in cross-border payments from November 2026 and then agreed to extend the migration.
IBAN (International Bank Account Number)The IBAN is the international standard identifier of a bank account, defined in ISO 13616. It has up to 34 characters: a two-letter country code, two check digits and the national account number (BBAN), for example 22 characters in Germany and 27 in France. In SEPA the IBAN alone is enough to make a payment.
IBAN (International Bank Account Number)The IBAN is the international standard identifier of a bank account, defined in ISO 13616. It has up to 34 characters: a two-letter country code, two check digits and the national account number (BBAN), for example 22 characters in Germany and 27 in France. In SEPA the IBAN alone is enough to make a payment.
BIC (Business Identifier Code)The BIC, often called a Swift code, is the international identifier of a bank or other business, defined in ISO 9362. It has 8 or 11 characters: a four-character party prefix, a two-letter country code, a two-character suffix and an optional three-character branch code. Swift is the registration authority.
Straight-through processing (STP)Straight-through processing (STP) is the end-to-end automated handling of a payment or trade, from initiation to settlement and booking, with no manual intervention. The STP rate, the share of transactions processed without a manual touch, is a key operations metric; breaks usually come from missing or badly formatted data.