ISO 20022 countdown to November 2025

What does ISO 20022 mean?

If you’re a TCSP in the Channel Islands, you may have heard the term ISO 20022 mentioned increasingly in conversations with your banking partners. With the SWIFT network completing its migration to ISO 20022 for cross-border payments and reporting by November 2025, this is a change that will affect how you interact with banks, process payments, and manage client data.

But what does it actually mean for you? Let’s break it down.

What is ISO 20022?

ISO 20022 is a global standard for financial messaging. Think of it as a universal language for how banks, corporates, and financial institutions communicate about payments, securities, and reporting.

• It replaces older messaging formats (like SWIFT MT messages) with a richer, more structured data format based on XML.
• It enables more data to be carried within each message — beneficiary details, purpose of payment, regulatory information, and more.
• It creates consistency across different payment types and jurisdictions, reducing the need for bespoke translations between formats.

The migration has been underway for several years, with a hard deadline of November 2025 for SWIFT cross-border payments to fully transition to ISO 20022. Domestically, many jurisdictions have already adopted it — SEPA payments in Europe have been ISO 20022 for years.

Key Benefits

ISO 20022 isn’t just a technical migration — it brings real, tangible benefits:

1. Richer data: More structured fields mean more information travels with each payment. This improves straight-through processing, reduces manual intervention, and enables better reconciliation.

2. Improved compliance: With more detailed beneficiary and remitter information, sanctions screening and AML checks become more effective. Regulators are increasingly expecting this level of data richness.

3. Better interoperability: A common standard means less friction between banks, jurisdictions, and payment systems. Payments flow more smoothly, and reporting becomes more consistent.

4. Future-proofing: ISO 20022 is the foundation for the next generation of financial services — real-time payments, enhanced analytics, and API-driven banking all build on this standard.

What This Means for TCSPs

For TCSPs operating in the Channel Islands and other offshore jurisdictions, the ISO 20022 migration has several practical implications:

• Bank statement formats are changing

  • If you receive statements via SFTP or other automated channels, you’ll need to support CAMT.053 (end-of-day statements) and CAMT.052 (intra-day statements) formats.
  • These replace the older MT940 and MT942 formats that many TCSPs are currently processing.

• Payment file formats are changing

  • Outbound payment instructions will need to be in PAIN.001 (credit transfers) and PAIN.008 (direct debits) formats.
  • These replace the variety of bank-specific and legacy formats currently in use.

• More data means more opportunity

  • The richer data in ISO 20022 messages opens up possibilities for better reconciliation, more detailed reporting, and improved client service.
  • TCSPs that can leverage this data effectively will have a competitive advantage.

• Your systems need to be ready

  • Whether you’re using an administration platform, a workflow tool, or manual processes, you need to ensure your systems can handle ISO 20022 formats.
  • This includes both receiving (statements) and sending (payments) in the new formats.

Preparing for ISO 20022

Here’s how TCSPs can prepare for the transition:

• Talk to your banking partners

  • Understand their ISO 20022 timeline and what formats they’ll be moving to.
  • Ask about testing environments and migration support.
  • Clarify whether legacy formats (MT940, etc.) will continue to be supported during a transition period.

• Assess your current systems

  • Can your administration platform or workflow tools handle CAMT and PAIN formats?
  • If you’re using automated statement processing, does your provider support ISO 20022?
  • Identify any gaps that need to be addressed before November 2025.

• Work with your technology providers

  • If you’re using Flinq or similar platforms, check that ISO 20022 support is on the roadmap (spoiler: it’s core to what we do).
  • Engage early to ensure a smooth transition.

• Upskill your team

  • Ensure your operations and finance teams understand the basics of ISO 20022 — what’s changing, why, and how it affects their daily work.
  • The transition is an opportunity to improve processes, not just a compliance exercise.

Conclusion

The ISO 20022 migration is one of the most significant changes in financial messaging in decades. For TCSPs, it represents both a challenge and an opportunity.

The challenge is ensuring your systems, processes, and banking relationships are ready for the new formats. The opportunity is leveraging the richer data and improved standards to deliver better service, improve efficiency, and strengthen your position as a trusted partner to your clients and banks.

At Flinq, ISO 20022 is at the heart of what we do. Our platform natively supports CAMT and PAIN formats, and we’re helping TCSPs across the Channel Islands prepare for a smooth transition. Get in touch to learn more.