The long-awaited ISO 20022 initiative is now live in the U.S. for Fedwire payments. While the term ISO 20022 may not be widely known, it has begun to change the global payment landscape. Over time, this significant industry standardization initiative will impact the way businesses send and receive money, especially cross-border.
What is ISO 20022?
By now, you may have heard that ISO 20022 is setting a new global standard for payments by providing a common language for banks, clients and market infrastructures to communicate with each other. In addition to the recent July 14, 2025 milestone for Federal Reserve wire payments, there is another key milestone in November 2025 for SWIFT cross-border payments.
What is the main benefit of ISO 20022?
The ultimate result of ISO 20022 will be a better, faster end-to-end experience for all participants in the payments chain. With ISO 20022, data is more structured, enabling banks, clients, and regulators with the ability to more clearly understand the purpose of the payments and to better identify the senders/receivers of the payments.
Santander remains ready
Over the last two years, Santander has invested heavily in ISO 20022 compliance to ensure that wire payments would flow without interruption to and from other ISO-compliant banks and market participants for the Fedwire implementation. We also invested in technology to minimize client impact.
What’s next?
Transition of The Federal Reserve’s Fedwire system was the first and the biggest milestone for ISO 20022 in 2025. These standards included new structured address fields and new information for U.S. tax payments. Clients initiating individual payments via online channels or via Santander branches may not notice these changes. Clients who upload files or use wire templates may be required to make some changes.
In November 2025, international wire payments processed via SWIFT will need to comply with the full and final set of ISO 20022 requirements and Fedwire payments will need to conform to those requirements. There may be some additional client impacts as that date approaches. Santander is now finalizing preparations for this final SWIFT implementation.
Santander has long recognized the importance of the July 2025 and November 2025 milestones for its Commercial clients, and remains committed to supporting them throughout the transition process. Clients who initiate payments via a file-based system may have been contacted by their Santander representatives regarding steps they may need to take. Other clients may wish to reach out to their Santander representatives to discuss any questions they might have. Clients also should consider speaking to their own vendors, ERP providers, and/or other counterparties who may be actively involved in ISO 20022 compliance in order to understand any implications or potential benefits of the coming changes.
The Commercial Bank’s support extends beyond technical training, offering strategic insights into how the new standard can be leveraged to drive business growth and innovation, while helping to strengthen the future of payments capabilities for the industry overall.
Greg Murray, Head of Transaction Banking Product Management for Santander Bank, N.A., breaks down ISO 20022 in the simplest terms, the implications it holds for payments, how Santander is helping clients navigate the ISO 20022 transition, as well as how the Bank is leveraging digital solutions in:
- FinTech Futures
- Fintech Finance News
- “Branching Out,” Deloitte’s retail and transaction banking podcast