The Bank of England worked with Accenture on the move ahead of Swift’s November 2025 retirement of its existing MT message standard for cross-border payments.

The central bank says ISO 20022 will bring a host of benefits, including enriched data, global harmonisation, enhanced analytics and improved resilience.

The migration is also part of a wider multi-year programme to renew the Bank’s Real Time Gross Settlement service that will see the roll out of a new core settlement engine next summer.

Victoria Cleland, executive director, payments, BofE, says: “The introduction of the ISO 20022 financial messaging standard marks a major milestone in our mission to enhance our RTGS and CHAPS services: critical infrastructure at the heart of the financial system.

“In an increasingly globalised payments world, harmonisation of messaging through ISO 20022 will enable more systems to speak the same language and ultimately enhance cross border payments.”