SWIFT announced on August 27 that it will defer all payments changes from Standards Release 2026. The decision abandons the November 14 deadline that would have prohibited unstructured postal addresses in CBPR+ ISO 20022 cross-border payment messages. SWIFT's own April 2026 data showed 61.2% of payments still containing unstructured debtor postal addresses and 62.9% containing unstructured creditor information.
The Bank of England confirmed on August 28 that it will defer its November 2026 RTGS standards release in its entirety, aligning with SWIFT to preserve global interoperability for CHAPS. Non-payment changes in Standards Release 2026, including those supporting T+1 settlement timelines, will be decoupled and moved to Q1 2027.
SWIFT will consult banks, central banks, and payment market infrastructures on a revised timetable, with an update on the structured address requirement expected by December 2026.