As payment innovations reshape the way businesses and people move money, the financial industry is making changes to improve payment processing efficiency and interoperability among payment systems around the world.
One of the most seismic shifts in the payments landscape is the global adoption of ISO 20022. This financial messaging standard is replacing propriety formats used by payment systems such as Swift, CHIPS, and Fedwire Funds. By the end of 2025, ISO 20022 will be the global standard for most financial messaging.
Wells Fargo is a key participant in the financial industry’s transition to ISO 20022. By leveraging this global standard, financial institutions can improve the speed and predictability of payments, increase transparency for better compliance, and achieve better data analytics and increased operational efficiencies.
We are taking a proactive approach to help ensure a smooth transition for our customers and encourage them to partner with us as we move forward.
ISO 20022 is a strategic financial industry initiative to replace proprietary message formats with a standard format and definition of data elements. It provides a common language for systems and people to exchange information about financial business. ISO 20022 components are also reusable in other message formats, enabling payment systems to customize data elements to meet their unique needs.
Messages in the ISO 20022 MX format are more likely to post automatically, reducing manual touchpoints while providing more data about each transaction. Potential benefits include the following.
Financial infrastructures worldwide must adopt the ISO 20022 MX format by November 2025. Payment systems are moving to the standard on different schedules, which began in March 2023.
| Payment system | Transition date |
|---|---|
| Swift, Europe Target 2 | Starting March 2023. Swift MT and ISO 20022 MX messages will coexist through 2025. Originators can send most payment messages in either format. |
| CHAPS | June 2023 (complete). All payment messages must now use the ISO 20022 MX format. |
| CHIPS | April 2024 (complete). All payment messages must now use the CHIPS ISO 20022 format. |
| Fedwire Funds | July 2025. All payment messages must use the Fedwire ISO 20022 format starting in July 2025. |
ISO 20022 MX messages and Swift MT messages began to coexist in 2023 and will continue through 2026. Some of the coexisting message types include the following.
| Message type | Swift MT | ISO 20022 MX |
|---|---|---|
| Payment initiation* | MT 101 series | pain.001 |
| Payment clearing and settlement | MT 103, 200, 202, 202 COV, 203, and 205 series | pacs.008, pacs.009, and pacs.009 COV |
| Cash management* | MT 900/910 series | camt.054 |
| Cash management* | MT 940/950 series | camt.053 |
*MT and MX messages will continue to be supported after November 2025.
Wells Fargo is a founding member of Swift’s Payments Market Practice Group (PMPG). We’re also an active participant in key working groups that are shaping the transition, including various technical user groups. We have had extensive testing with other clearing and partner banks.
To help ensure we’re well-prepared to support our customers, we plan to transition to ISO 20022 MX messages in phases.
| Message type | Transition plan |
|---|---|
| Payment messages customers send to us | Customers can continue to send most payment messages to us in either MT or MX format. Exception: We can only accept Request for Transfer messages in MT format (MT 101). Customers should be able to send them in the MX pain.001 format starting in November 2025. |
| Payment messages we send to other financial institutions through Swift | Most outgoing payments through Swift will fully transition to the MX format in November 2025. |
| Statement and advice messages we send to customers |
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| Charge payment notifications and requests |
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We encourage you to start planning now to prepare your payment systems for the transition. If you need support, please contact your Wells Fargo representative.
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LRC-0625
