THE FCC-7 INSIGHTS

The global migration to ISO 20022 is reshaping the payments landscape, with SWIFT mandating the use of ISO 20022 messages for cross-border payments since the end of November 2025. Many major domestic and cross-border payment systems, including TARGET2 in the EU, CHAPS in the UK, Fedwire in the US, and China’s CIPS, have already made the transition or are rapidly moving toward full adoption. This shift unlocks richer, standardised end-to-end payment data, enabling institutions to transform how they manage financial crime risk.

ISO 20022’s enhanced and extensible data model provides greater interoperability, transparency, and operational efficiency across the financial ecosystem. For compliance teams, the benefits are particularly significant: more structured payment information improves screening accuracy, reduces false positives, and strengthens AML defenses. FATF has highlighted the opportunity to enrich originator and beneficiary information, signaling that compliance requirements will continue to evolve alongside the standard.

In this white paper, Neterium explores the practical implications of ISO 20022 for compliance screening and outlines actionable steps financial institutions can take to fully leverage its benefits while managing the operational and regulatory challenges of adoption.