Wire Transfer Payments are Evolving in 2026, Are You Ready?

The issue – As of November 14, 2026, all wire transfers must include Town¹ and Country¹ information (aka Hybrid Address²) for any payment party,  i.e. any payor (Debtor³) or payee (Creditor¹).  Town and Country data must be present in the dedicated fields for this data. Payments which meet this requirement include:

1. All cross border wire transfers in any currency.
2. US domestic wire transfers.

Parties to a wire transfer that require this information:  Debtor, Creditor, and if present, Ultimate Debtor and Ultimate Creditor⁴.

Why is this needed?  – The data is required to meet compliance requirements as documented in FATF 16. 

Why is this needed now?  – Swift and many central banks and payment market infrastructures have collectively agreed to implement the requirement as of November 14, 2026.  Any payment not meeting the requirement sent on or after that date may experience rejects, delay, repairs, or cancellation.  Central banks and wire services implementing the requirement include:   Fedwire Funds Service, CHIPS, UK CHAPS, EU T2, Swift, and other countries’ domestic wire transfer systems.

What data is needed exactly?  – Requirements include:

1. Payment party postal addresses must include Town (city, town, village) and Country (ISO country code) in the dedicated fields in the payment message. 
2. The Town and Country information must appear in the correct fields when the message is sent by your payments bank over the wire services. The ISO 20022 payment standards include specific fields for party Town and Country in which the data should appear.  If a payer is using a means other than ISO20022 to originate a payment instruction, such as their bank’s online payment application, the information must be provided by the payer as indicated by the bank, and the bank must include in the correct fields in the payment message sent over Fedwire, CHIPS, or Swift, etc.
3. The data is required for parties to include Debtor and Creditor.
4. In addition, any optional non-bank parties if present in a payment, e.g. Ultimate Debtor and Ultimate Creditor, must also include Town and Country.
5. Where the party is physically located outside of Town, the name of the county or province (or similar) may be used.

Any issues should be discussed with your payment services provider.

What does the payer need to do?  – Steps include:

1. Confirm that all standing payment instructions:
a. Include the information.
b. The information is properly located so that the dedicated fields for this information.
c. Develop a list of payee records missing the required data or including the data in the wrong position.

2. Any payees (Creditors) missing the required information should be researched through the appropriate sources, typically Accounts Payable or other internal teams.

3. Include the missing data in the respective payment records in the proper location.
4. Reposition any of the required information to the proper fields:
a.When using that standard to communicate with your banks: Reposition the data to the Town and Country fields in the ISO20022 messages.
b.When using your bank’s online payment systems, after guidance from your payment bank.

When must I be ready?  – You must be ready as of November 14, 2026.

Can I start sending Town and Country information before November 14? – Yes! You may start sending using the new rules and positioning as soon as you are ready.

Where can I get more information?  – Talk to your payment bank(s) to get more information on this issue including any bank specific capabilities.

The Payments Market Practice Group (PMPG) an independent global forum of payments experts that defines market practices and drives global standards for the financial industry has published this detailed guide:

https://www.swift.com/swift-resource/252289/download

Are you ready? – If you have not already addressed this requirement, or are not already in progress, you should start now to be sure you meet the November 14, 2026 deadline, required for compliance and agreed and enforced by the industry including Fedwire Funds, CHIPS, and Swift, etc.

Notes:

Reposition any of the required information to the proper fields:

1. The terms used here are fields in ISO20022 standard messages, the messages used by Fedwire Funds, CHIPS, Swift to instruct a wire transfer.

2. Options to format address information:

a. Partially structured or Hybrid Address: Where Town and Country appear in dedicated fields, additional address information appears in freeform address lines. Already allowed today.
b. Fully structured address: All non-bank party address data appears in dedicated fields for each data element. Already allowed today.
c. Fully unstructured postal address: All address information appears in freeform address lines. No longer supported starting November 14, 2026.

3. Creditor (the payee, the party to receive the funds), the Debtor (the party to initiate a payment sending monies to the payee).

4. Ultimate Debtor and Ultimate Creditor – Non-bank on behalf of (OBO) parties are sometimes involved in a payment. When present in a payment, they should be included in the payment instruction with full postal address including Town and Country data in the dedicated fields.