ISO 20022 explained: what the standard changes for your payments
ISO 20022 is a common way to describe financial data, so that banks, companies and payment infrastructures share the same vocabulary and messages.
Written by Struct20022 · updated August 29, 2026
A common language for banks and companies
The standard defines a modelling method, a data dictionary and a catalogue of messages. XML is one of the syntaxes used to carry those messages.
This shared structure reduces ambiguity: a town, country, amount or reference has a defined place and meaning in the message.
Where postal addresses fit
In a payment file such as pain.001, payment parties can carry a postal address in a PstlAdr block. A fully free-text address is hard to check automatically because street, town and country remain mixed together.
Structured or hybrid addresses make at least town and country identifiable, with street, building number and postcode added when the data is available.
What teams should do
Start with the files you send to the bank and measure the quality of their addresses, before touching the ERP.
That evidence lets teams fix priority rows first, then work back to the supplier, customer or employee master data feeding the files.
Five points to remember
- 1ISO 20022 describes financial data; XML is one way to carry it.
- 2pain.001 is a payment-initiation message used between a company and its bank.
- 3Postal addresses sit in PstlAdr blocks attached to payment parties.
- 4Town and country must be identifiable in the expected fields for the relevant flows.
- 5Reviewing real files shows what should be fixed first.
FAQ
Is ISO 20022 a file format?
Not only. The standard defines a method, a data model and a message catalogue. XML is a common syntax used to implement it.
Who is affected inside a company?
Treasury, finance, accounting, payroll and master-data teams are affected whenever their data feeds a payment file.
Will a valid XML file always be accepted?
No. Technical validity does not replace bank rules, usage guidelines or data quality. Critical flows should be tested with the payment provider.
Official sources
Related guides
Start with the files you send to your bank
Struct20022 identifies addresses that need attention and helps you prepare targeted cleanup before bank submission.