flow briefing

On the journey to ISO 20022 adoption, November 2025 stands out as a milestone. It marks the end of the ISO 20022-MT coexistence period, during which both MT and ISO 20022 messages continued to be supported on the Swift network.

While the deadline is a moment the payments industry has been preparing for, many open questions remain. This flow briefing aims to provide much-needed clarity.

How to foster ISO 20022 harmonisation

As efforts to enhance cross-border payments processing continue to ramp up, one of the important next steps in the journey is the implementation of the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures’ (CPMI) harmonised minimum data requirements for ISO 20022 messages.

This flow briefing, written by Karyna Hutarovich, Business Product Specialist at Deutsche Bank, sets out the key findings and main takeaways in the CPMI report for market infrastructure participants

To date, the ISO 20022 topic has centred around interbank messages.

However, this is set to change: from November 2026, corporates will have to adopt XML-based payment messages in the ISO 20022 format. This flow briefing discusses the requirement of sending hybrid or fully structured address data and how corporates should prepare

Crypto assets continue to garner attention across Europe – both from a retail and institutional perspective. Yet, one longstanding challenge has been the regulatory uncertainty associated with crypto asset governance.

To mitigate potential risks to financial stability – and introduce stricter protections for consumers and investors – the European commission identified the need for a harmonised European Union (EU) regulation for the crypto market and its participants. This came in the form of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR).

This flow briefing describes how MiCAR creates a comprehensive and coordinated framework for crypto asset issuers and service providers and what it means for the associated services that fall within its scope.

Deutsche Bank’s Bangladesh office marks second anniversary with cash management innovation

Two years ago, Deutsche Bank opened a representative office in Dhaka, Bangladesh, with the country’s status as one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies bringing significant opportunities to support the German/ Bangladesh trade corridors. This flow briefing provides a guide to the country’s economic and political essentials and sets out the opportunities for doing business there

The SEPA Instant Payment Regulation, which came into force on 9 April 2024, is intended to make instant payments the “new normal” for payments in Europe.

The regulation lays the foundation for a modern European payment infrastructure – one that will allow other initiatives and payment schemes, such as the European Payments Initiative (EPI) as well as Request to Pay (RTP), to build on the existing payment rails while unlocking new possibilities to improve customer experience across different channels.

This flow briefing describes the requirements this regulation brings for payment service providers (PSPs) across the EU. It also explains opportunities for market innovation.

The new SEPA Rulebook by the European Payment Council comes into effect in March 2024, bringing with it a new era of ISO 20022 messages.

On 17 March 2024, a new version of the SEPA Rulebook published by the European Payment Council (EPC) will go into effect, allowing for future services and introducing a couple of changes. Some of the changes may have an impact on your SEPA transaction processing, even if you do not plan to actively use any of the new options.

This flow briefing outlines the changes the new rulebook introduces and how it impacts clients.

The G20 Roadmap sets out quantitative targets for the industry to improve cross-border payments by 2027. As part of this effort, the harmonisation of ISO 20022 data requirements has been identified as a priority area, with minimum data requirements on their way.

Today, processing cross-border payments is more efficient, more transparent and faster than ever thanks to the many initiatives that have been introduced over the past few years, including Swift gpi, ISO 20022 and the Transaction Manager, among others.

This flow briefing provides a roadmap for G20 countries of what to expect migrating cross-border payments to the ISO 20022 standard.

If you were asked what information is needed to execute a cross-border payment, what would come to mind? Is it amount being paid? Or the payer and payee account, perhaps? And what about addresses?

In fact, proper identification of all participants involved in the payment chain is a crucial part of cross-border payments processing. While certain data elements, such as the payee/creditor account, are required for the funds to be allocated to the recipient correctly, the names and addresses of the actors involved play an important role in anti-financial crime processes (AFC).

This flow briefing explains how, in the move to ISO 20022, address fields will be populated.

Over the past few years, the banking industry has invested in various initiatives in an effort to enhance crossborder payment processing. This includes the introduction of rich and structured ISO 20022 messages and the Transaction Manager, which aim to remove friction, increase straight-though processing, and improve the speed of end-to-end payment delivery.

This briefing takes a closer look at the handling of exceptions & investigations (E&I) when a payment cannot be processed and the industry effort to aid this pain point with standardisation, automation and a new level of transparency.

The ISO 20022 era has finally begun, with an increasing volume of messages now being successfully exchanged on the network. But are you aware that the compliance with the pure ISO 20022 message format may not be enough as of end of May 2023 (expected date at the time of writing)?

As a result, the ISO 20022 and MT messages that are currently being processed without issues may be aborted in future. Let’s explore the scenarios in which this might happen.

Here comes the statement we have all been waiting for: ISO 20022 has been adopted by Swift, as well as market infrastructures (MI) in the Eurozone, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada

From the moment this project was conceived until now, a lot of time has passed – and it is great to finally see the baby take its first steps.

But, as we all know, there is a long way to go. Given the years of coexistence in front of us (in the correspondent banking space, the MT format is expected to be used along ISO 20022 until November 2025), the fact that many will start injecting their ISO 20022 cross-border payments in the months to come, and the upcoming markets migrating to ISO 20022 in the near future (e.g. UK, Asia, US), it is now important to reflect on the lessons learnt from these whirlwind first days – and how this could help all of us on the journey to optimise cross-border payments.

While ISO 20022 remains one of the most important topics in the correspondent banking space – and will likely continue to for another few years – there is another topic on the horizon with the potential to gain a similar level of industry attention: the introduction of the Swift Transaction Manager

Starting in May 2023, in-scope ISO 20022 messages and the respective translated MT messages will be automatically routed via the Transaction Manager – a central platform that will apply an additional set of rules during processing that go beyond the Cross-Border Payments and Reporting Plus (CBPR+) guidelines. Thanks to the stricter rules and the overarching orchestration, the Transaction Manager promises to ensure data immutability along the payment chain and further increase payment efficiency.

We are almost there. The much-anticipated ISO 20022 go-live date is nearly upon us, and the industry is busy with the final preparations

Transaction banking, however, involves the cooperation of various actors and because of this, no matter how well prepared you are, you cannot plan for everything and must expect the unexpected. For instance, we already expect that unforeseen issues will likely emerge after the migration deadline.

That said, there are certain areas that could be susceptible to issues post-migration and are already known to the market. By considering these areas – and some last-minute tips – we can ensure a better migration experience.