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ISO 20022: The New Standard

What’s Changing with Wire Payments?

Wire transfers will transition to ISO 20022, a global standard designed to enhance security, efficiency and transparency in payments. This update improves the way wire instructions are processed, making transactions more structured and reducing errors. Below, you’ll find key details, frequently asked questions and resources to help you understand what’s ahead.

Postal Address Requirements

By the end of November 2026, all postal addresses will require the City and Country for all parties involved in
wire payments. PO Boxes are not recommended.

U.S. and Global Standardization

The transition ensures better interoperability between banks and corporations, enhances straight-through processing (STP), improves fraud detection and
aligns with regulatory and compliance needs.

Data-Rich Insights

ISO 20022 will enable banks, commercial clients and consumer customers to communicate information
via all the wire payment types.

 

Important Dates

November 2025

City National Bank will convert to the ISO 20022 message standard for wires on November 17, 2025

 

 

November 2025

SWIFT requires that all banks migrate to the ISO 20022
message standard for wires by November 24, 2025

 

 

FAQs

ISO stands for the International Organization for Standardization and it is an independent, non-governmental international organization. It brings global experts together to agree on best practices. To find out more about visit their website: https://www.iso.org/home.html.

ISO 20022 is a global standard for electronic financial messaging introduced in 2004. It is being adopted for wire transfers to replace legacy formats like SWIFT MT and EDI. It offers a richer, more structured data format, improving payment processing, compliance and reconciliation.

The transition ensures better interoperability between banks and corporations, enhances straight-through processing (STP), improves fraud detection and aligns with regulatory and compliance needs.

City National Bank sends all domestic and international USD wires to the Federal Reserve Financial Services network via Fedwire. City National Bank sends all international FX wires to the SWIFT network. City National Bank receives incoming wires from both networks. 

By November 24, 2025, each financial institution and non-bank financial institution on the SWIFT Network is expected to migrate to the ISO format.

As of the morning of November 17, City National Bank will send and receive all international FX wire transfer messages to the SWIFT Network in the ISO 20022 format.

Yes. The SWIFT MIR (Message Input Reference) will be displayed with an updated value. The current reference number is displayed with 28 characters, and the new number will be displayed with 42 characters, and a breakdown is in the table below:

swi03004-YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.667.216508Z

swi03004

“SWITCHid” or SWIFT Equivalent of CNB's BIC Code

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS

Date/Time Stamp

667

Specific SWIFT identifier

216508

“Digits” or transaction sequence number

 Z

Hardcoded Z

 

No action is required from our clients at this time; City National Bank will handle the message conversion to the ISO format.

You will not have to change anything in your current wire process as no additional wire detail or beneficiary address information will be mandated.

Please note, where country-specific requirements for beneficiary addresses already exist (e.g., Canadian wires require a full beneficiary address), those requirements will not change with CNB’s November 17, 2025, ISO conversion.

There are no changes to SWIFT BICs. City National Bank’s SWIFT BICs is: CINAUS6L

Our specialized team is here for you.

Thank you for choosing City National Treasury Management Solutions.
Our team offers help, troubleshooting and training for all online treasury services.

Email

Send your questions to:




TMServicing@cnb.com

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(213) 673-9393
 or (800) 599-0020

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