ZagTrader

MT to MX: what changed for payments in November 2025

Written and maintained by ZagTrader. Last reviewed . How this page is sourced and checked

On 22 November 2025 the coexistence period for cross-border payment instructions on Swift ended. Since then, payment instructions between banks are delivered as ISO 20022 (CBPR+) messages, while statements, confirmations, investigations and securities messages have their own, later timelines.

What changed on 22 November 2025

From March 2023 to November 2025, banks could send a cross-border payment either as an MT or as an ISO 20022 message, and every bank had to be able to receive ISO 20022. From 22 November 2025 the payment instructions themselves moved to ISO 20022 only: an MT103 customer transfer is now a pacs.008, and an MT202 or MT202COV bank transfer is now a pacs.009 or pacs.009 COV.

MT103, MT103 STP, MT200, MT202 and MT202COV messages that a bank still sends on FIN are converted into ISO 20022 by Swift's contingency processing, so the payment is not lost. The conversion is a fallback, not a way to stay on MT: Swift charges for it from 1 January 2026, and data that an MT cannot carry is simply missing from the converted message.

Payment instructions after 22 November 2025
Before (MT)Since 22 November 2025 (ISO 20022)
MT103 single customer credit transferpacs.008
MT202 financial institution transferpacs.009
MT202COV cover paymentpacs.009 COV (pacs.009 with the underlying customer transfer)
Reject in an MT199 or field 72 /REJT/pacs.002 with status RJCT and a status reason code
Return as a new MT103 or MT202 with /RETN/pacs.004 with a return reason code

What did not move in November 2025

  • Statements and notifications. MT940, MT950, MT942, MT900 and MT910 are still supported next to camt.053, camt.052 and camt.054; banks are expected to be able to receive the camt reporting messages by November 2027.
  • Exceptions and investigations. MT192, MT196 and MT199 remain in use alongside camt.056 and camt.029. The new investigation messages camt.110 and camt.111 were planned for November 2026; the mandate to receive camt.110 was deferred to the first quarter of 2027.
  • MT101 requests for transfer between financial institutions may continue until at least November 2027.
  • Securities. The MT5xx settlement, custody and corporate action messages were not part of the payments deadline and remain in use next to their ISO 20022 equivalents. See the securities migration guide.

Richer data, and why it matters

ISO 20022 gives each piece of data its own element: the debtor's name, a structured postal address, a legal entity identifier, the purpose of the payment, structured remittance information. In MT these were squeezed into free-text lines such as field 50K or 70. Banks that receive ISO 20022 now use these elements for sanctions screening and straight-through processing, so missing or badly structured data is a more common reason for rejects such as BE04, RR02 or RR03.

Postal addresses are the next step. The hybrid address (structured town name and country plus at most two lines of 70 characters) became available on Swift in November 2025. Unstructured addresses were due to be removed with the November 2026 standards release; that release was postponed, and unstructured addresses may be used until at least November 2027.

When an ISO 20022 payment has to be passed on as an MT, for example to a system that still works in MT, text longer than the MT field is cut. See truncation in MT translation.

Timeline

DateEvent
18 November 2018UETR in field 121 becomes mandatory in MT103, MT202 and MT202COV.
March 2023CBPR+ goes live; MT and ISO 20022 payments coexist. T2 in the euro area moves to ISO 20022 on 20 March 2023.
14 July 2025Fedwire Funds moves to ISO 20022.
22 November 2025End of coexistence: payment instructions between banks on Swift in ISO 20022 only. Hybrid postal addresses available.
1 January 2026Swift charges for contingency conversion of MT payment instructions.
Q1 2027 (planned)Mandate to receive camt.110 investigation requests.
November 2027 (at least)Unstructured postal addresses and MT101 between banks still allowed until this date; camt reporting receive-readiness expected.

Checklist for operations teams

  1. Read rejects and returns as ISO 20022: learn the status reason codes you see most, such as AC01, AC04, AM04, MS03 and RC01.
  2. Match every reject, return and cancellation to the original payment by its UETR (OrgnlUETR).
  3. Capture structured data at the source: legal names, town and country of every party, LEIs where you have them, and purpose codes where the destination requires them.
  4. Check your own payment templates for data that only fits the old MT fields, and move it to the right ISO 20022 element.
  5. Keep reading MT statements until your banks switch you to camt.053 and camt.054, and test the camt files before the switch.
  6. Paste any message you are unsure about into the parser to see every field or element with its name.

Questions

Is the MT103 discontinued?
As a payment instruction between banks on Swift, yes: since 22 November 2025 the pacs.008 replaces it. An MT103 still sent on FIN is converted by Swift's contingency processing, which is charged from 1 January 2026.
Can I still receive MT940 statements?
Yes. Statements and notifications were not part of the November 2025 deadline. MT940, MT942 and MT950 remain in use next to camt.052 and camt.053 for now.
What replaced the MT202COV?
The pacs.009 COV: a pacs.009 that carries the underlying customer credit transfer, sent with a pacs.008 that uses settlement method COVE.
Did securities messages move to ISO 20022 in November 2025?
No. The deadline covered cross-border payment instructions. Securities MT messages remain in use alongside their ISO 20022 equivalents.
What is contingency processing?
A Swift service that converts MT payment instructions still sent on FIN after the end of coexistence into ISO 20022 messages, so the payment can be delivered. It is a fallback and has been charged since 1 January 2026.

Messages in this guide

All guides · Troubleshooting