According to the official roadmap, the coexistence phase of MT and ISO 20022 messages in cross-border payments at SWIFT will end on 22 November 2025. From this date onwards, all payment transactions within the CBPR+ (Cross-Border Payments and Reporting Plus) framework will be transmitted exclusively in the new ISO 20022 format. Particularly affected are the previously dominant message types MT103 and MT202, which will then no longer be used.
As of 14 August 2025, there are exactly 100 days until this deadline. This is a good time to take stock of the situation, as the road to the ‘real’ format change is rockier than the deadline suggests.
Strict timetable – with many exceptions
SWIFT has clearly stated that MT payment messages will be discontinued after 22 November 2025: anyone still using the old format after this date risks NAKs, additional costs or even processing interruptions – unless they convert to ISO 20022.
At the same time, however, the official end of the coexistence phase has already been significantly softened to 2024, as we analysed in detail in this article. And even now, it is clear that for institutions that are not yet ISO-compliant, the situation will not necessarily become serious on 22 November, but only at the turn of the year 2025/2026, when SWIFT begins to charge fees for the Inflow Translation Service.
Translation as a transition – but not as a strategy
SWIFT’s translation services are intended to cushion the technical impact of the format change. They enable incoming MT messages to be automatically converted to ISO format – but on terms that are not very attractive:
- There is a charge for using the service,
- the exact prices are not publicly available,
- and the service is not intended for continuous operation.
Institutions with high message volumes and many residual MT dependencies in particular should not be under any illusions: SWIFT is pursuing a clear pricing policy with the aim of enforcing a complete switch to native ISO 20022 as soon as possible.
What will happen in concrete terms from 22 November
SWIFT itself warns in a recent toolkit document that non-migrated MT payment messages will either be rejected (NAKed) or only processed via emergency processes at an additional cost from 22 November 2025. At the same time, it emphasises the advantages of the new format: structured data, more efficient processes, better compliance capability and more scope for innovation.
Our conclusion
With 100 days to go, one thing is clear: 22 November 2025 is less of a hard deadline and more of a turning point. Those who have not yet fully completed the switch to ISO 20022 by then will not be immediately excluded, but will increasingly be forced into a price-sensitive, technically complex residual scenario. Anyone who wants to set up payment transactions in a sustainable and compliant manner will not be able to avoid native ISO 20022-based processing.
