ISO 20022 is a global data standard for payment messages and reporting. It replaces or augments legacy formats with structured fields for addresses, purpose and remittance. For corporates this means: 

• more data at payment origination, not after the fact 
• structured remittance that could link payments to invoices and purchase orders 
• unique end-to-end IDs across payment messages 
• higher straight-through processing volumes, with commensurate cost reductions 

In the UK, CHAPS and Real Time Generation System (RTGS) moved to ISO 20022 in June 2023. The Bank of England (BoE) has set further milestones that raise data quality again in 2026 and 2027. 

Knowing key upcoming dates helps you plan system and process changes. 

• November 2026: BOE CHAPS, CBPR+ and SEPA  removal of unstructured addresses and continued use of structured and Hybrid addresses 
• November 2027: structured remittance becomes mandatory for BOE CHAPS. The Bank of England plans for purpose codes for all BOE CHAPS payments 

These changes push higher data quality into every payment. Finance teams that prepare early can bank the benefits while others rush to comply. 

You can size the impact with a simple model – here’s a helpful example below. Things like transaction volumes and costs will depend on your business or sector, so it’s important you swap in your own payment volumes and rates. 

Example model: 

Payment volumes: assume you process 1,000,000 incoming payments a year. 

Match rates: your current auto match rate is 72%. Manual exceptions are 28% with a £5 handling cost each. 

Exceptions: moving to structured remittance and purpose codes lifts auto match to 88%. Exceptions fall to 12%. That is 160,000 fewer items to touch and about £800,000 saved each year in handling. 

Data quality: cleaner data also reduces bank investigations. If you currently open 4,000 cases a year at £30 each and cut this by a third through better identifiers and purpose, that saves £40,000. 

Working capital: faster posting improves cash forecasting and working capital. A one-day improvement on £50m average daily receipts reduces reliance on short-term credit. Even at modest rates, the interest saving can be material. 

These figures are illustrative. Your baseline, mix of channels and sector will drive the actual outcomes. 

Focus on a small set of fields that unlock automation, such as: 

• end-to-end ID: A unique ID provided by the initiator that travels across the payment lifecycle of a single transaction. 
• purpose code: pick the code that best describes the payment reason.  
• legal Entity Identifier (LEI): include an LEI, where required. This can help compliance and reduce false positives.  
• structured or hybrid address: capture full or hybrid address information in required fields (minimum of town and country). 

ISO 20022 brings richer reporting messages: 

• camt.052 intraday reporting camt.053 end-of-day reporting  
• camt.054 delivers credit and debit advice  

Set targets that show progress, such as: 

• straight-through processing rate  
• investigation volume and average age of open cases 
• time-to-cash for high value receipts and refund time for outbound payments 
• forecast accuracy for week one vs. week four 

When the data is clean, exception queues shrink and teams spend time on value rather than detective work.

1. Map current flows and baselines: Document how payments arrive, how references are captured and where they fail to match. Freeze baseline metrics for posting rate, investigation volume and handling cost. 
2. Align field strategy: Define remittance templates by customer type.  
3. Retrofit order to cash: Add fields to order entry, invoices and customer portals. For self-service, give customers a clear template that fills the structured remittance fields. 
4. Upgrade bank connectivity: Enable ISO 20022 payment messages and reporting. Ask for camt.052, 053 and 054 and confirm field population. Validate structured addresses. 
5. Pilot and tune: Pick one business unit and a set of customers. Run for eight to 10 weeks. Track posting rate, exceptions and investigations side by side with a control group. 
6. Scale and govern: Roll out in waves. Add a monthly data quality review that samples messages and fixes root causes at source. Keep a short playbook for new partners and markets. 

Getting ready for ISO 20022 now

To learn more about the latest payments standards for faster, safer, more secure payments, get in touch with our specialists today.