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CBPR+ structured addresses: Swift postpones the November 2026 deadline

What changes, what doesn't, and how to use the extra time.

Published 22 September 2026

The timeline had been known since 2023: from 14 November 2026, the Swift network was due to reject CBPR+ payment messages carrying fully unstructured postal addresses. At the end of August, that timeline changed. Here is where things stand, and why the delay should not slow your project down.

What Swift announced

On 27 August 2026, Swift announced a controlled extension of Standards Release 2026: all payments-related changes are deferred. The reason is simple. As the cutover approached, progress remained uneven, large parts of the industry could not meet the requirement, and several communities had formally asked for more time. In April, around 61% of payments still carried unstructured addresses.

Swift will consult banks, central banks, market infrastructures, market practice groups and corporates to set the timing and approach. An update is expected by December 2026 at the latest.

The non-payments parts of the release follow their own track. They go live in the first quarter of 2027, notably to support the move to T+1 settlement in some markets.

What still applies today

SR 2025 remains in force until it is replaced. All three address formats — unstructured, hybrid and structured — therefore remain valid. Structured and hybrid addresses are not something to wait for: institutions that have already upgraded their systems can use them across the network.

Europe has followed suit. On 9 September 2026, the EPC decided to postpone the end of the unstructured format, planned for 15 November 2026, across its five SEPA payment scheme rulebooks. Its board will meet again in October 2026 to set a new date. In the UK, the Bank of England has also deferred its November 2026 RTGS release, including the CHAPS messaging standards.

For investigations, J.P. Morgan reports that the obligation to receive camt.110 will be implemented with the deferred partial release in the first quarter of 2027.

Why you shouldn't ease off

A delay is not a cancellation: the end of unstructured addresses has been rescheduled, not abandoned. The EPC strongly encourages participants to continue their migration and keep their implementation plans in place.

Three practical reasons to keep going now:

The new date may come quickly. Swift will communicate by December. The time between the announcement and the deadline will probably be shorter than the time you have today.
The real work is the data, not the message. Poor addresses enter the chain upstream: at onboarding, in client master data, in files sent by corporates. No last-minute translation fixes data that was never structured in the first place.
The benefits are immediate. Structured addresses reduce sanctions-screening false positives, manual repairs and investigations with correspondents.

Reminder: what will be required

The underlying rule has not changed. At a minimum, town and country must sit in dedicated tags for all agents and parties in CBPR+ payment messages. For agents, BIC only remains a valid option.

Structured — the target format

Each component in its own tag.

<PstlAdr>
  <StrtNm>Avenue Hassan II</StrtNm>
  <BldgNb>45</BldgNb>
  <PstCd>98000</PstCd>
  <TwnNm>Mutsamudu</TwnNm>
  <Ctry>KM</Ctry>
</PstlAdr>

Hybrid — the transition

Town and country structured, plus up to two free-text lines for the rest, never repeating the same component in both structured and free-text form.

<PstlAdr>
  <TwnNm>Mutsamudu</TwnNm>
  <Ctry>KM</Ctry>
  <AdrLine>Avenue Hassan II, 45</AdrLine>
</PstlAdr>

Unstructured — living on borrowed time

Everything in AdrLine, with no TwnNm or Ctry. This is the format that will go.

Making good use of the extra time

Map every point where an address enters your flows: onboarding, online banking, corporate files, incoming messages.
Measure the share of your addresses that are still unstructured, flow by flow.
Start with the highest volumes and the corridors where a rejection costs the most.
Test inbound handling: your systems must accept hybrid and structured addresses from your correspondents, and your screening tools must read them correctly.
Watch the timeline: the EPC decision in October, then Swift's announcement by December.

Check your messages

MXplorer Pro analyzes your CBPR+ messages offline and flags unstructured or incomplete addresses (missing town or country) before they are sent. Nothing leaves your machine, and the tool never processes or sends any payment. The Discover edition is free.

Try it free

Sources

This article will be updated as soon as Swift announces the new timeline.