Wire Change: ISO 20022

Effective July 14, 2025, all wire transfers will be transitioning to a new global standard known as ISO 20022. This change affects how banks send and receive wire payment information and is designed to enhance security, improve the quality of transaction data, and ensure smoother global wire transfers.

  • ISO 20022 is a new, international standard for sending payment information between financial institutions. It provides a more structured and comprehensive data format for wire transfers, resulting in fewer errors, enhanced security, and improved tracking and compliance with international standards, while also aligning domestic and international wire processes for greater consistency and efficiency.

  • No. This change only affects wire transfers. ACH Payments (such as payroll, vendor payments, or recurring debits) are not impacted. If you, your business or your organization do NOT send or receive wires, you don’t need to take any action.

  • Starting July 14, 2025, the following changes will go into effect:

    • Wire templates must be updated to the new ISO 20022 format before submitting wires.

    • Wire template screens in Business Online Banking will not reflect the new terminology. While you’ll still see the old field labels in the wire input form, you’ll be required to enter the new ISO-formatted information.

  • - Update your wire templates by July 14, 2025, with the following mandatory information:

    - Beneficiary Name (currently required)

    - Beneficiary Address (full physical address is required)

    - Beneficiary Bank Name

    - Financial Institution Address (at least City and State)

    - Reach out to vendors or payees to make sure you have all required information on file.

    - Communicate with your finance or bookkeeping team to make sure they’re aware of these upcoming changes.

    1. Log into your Business Online Banking.

    2. Navigate to your saved wire templates.

    3. Edit each template to include the required information listed above.

    4. Save your changes

  • When you send a wire, you’ll now need to provide a few more details, including:

    The full legal name of all parties involved. 

    - Not allowed: ABC Roofing

    - Required: ABC Roofing and Construction, LLC

    The full address including country. No PO Boxes.

    - Not Allowed: 123 Main St, Springfield

    - Required: 123 Main St., Springfield, IL 62704 United States

    The purpose of the wire.  This description must be detailed.

    - Not allowed: ‘Payment’, ‘Invoice’, ‘Transfer’

    - Allowed: ‘Invoice 4567 for March Rent’, ‘Payroll for week ending 3/15’

    Incomplete or missing information will lead to returned and/or delayed wires.  These updates are required for both domestic and international wires.

New ISO 20022 Terminology Examples:

Current Term New ISO 20022 Term
Originator/Sender Debtor
Originator Financial Institution Debtor Agent
Beneficiary/Payee Creditor
Beneficiary Financial Institution Creditor Agent
Routing Number Agent ID
Originator to Beneficiary Remittance Information
Reference for Beneficiary End to End ID
For Further Credit to Ultimate Creditor

Permissible Characters:

With the new ISO 20022 wire format, only certain characters will be allowed when entering information. You’ll be able to use regular letters (A–Z, a–z), numbers (0–9), and a small set of special characters as shown in the table below:

Special Character Name
  Space
. Period
? Question Mark
! Exclamation Point
, Comma
; Semicolon
: Colon
_ Underscore

Resources: