ISO 20022

Standardization and rich data for payments and beyond

ISO 20022 is a new global standard in financial transactions. It uses MX, or XML-based, messaging to deliver more consistent and complete information for all types of financial transactions, enabling greater speed, efficiency and data-rich reporting.

The banking industry is adopting the new standard in phases, and First Citizens will be there to help you through each step.

Key benefits of ISO 20022

As ISO 20022 becomes widely adopted globally, companies will have greater opportunities to benefit from increased consistency and detailed data for transactions.

Faster payments

  • Help improve cash flow and vendor relationships with straight-through processing
  • Gain more accurate visibility into liquidity for managing growth
  • Rapidly identify sanctioned transactions to improve compliance

Data-rich insights

  • Leverage enhanced data to automate compliance reporting, know-your-customer protocols and fraud detection
  • Capture insights to better understand your customers and help improve CRM, segment marketing and more
  • Improve decisions for spend management and forecasting

Key updates for Digital Banking customers

Here are the latest updates to FXEnvoy, Digital Banking for business and Commercial Advantage.

First Citizens product

Changes to domestic wires

Changes to international wires

Digital Banking for business

New mandatory fields:

  • Physical Address Line 1
  • City
  • State
  • Country
  • Zip Code

Recurring and future dated wires should be canceled and updated to include the new mandatory fields.

Fields not mandatory:

  • Other Beneficiary Information, or OBI

If this information is still needed, we recommend placing it elsewhere within the payment request prior to September 5, 2025.

New ISO terminology:

  • Beneficiary is now Creditor
  • Beneficiary Bank is now Creditor Agent
  • Originating Bank is now Debtor Agent
  • Intermediary Bank is now Intermediary Agent
  • Ordering Customer is now Debtor

Commercial Advantage

New mandatory field:

  • Address Line 1

Templates, contact center beneficiaries, and new freeform wires and templates should be updated to include the new mandatory field.

No change

FXEnvoy

No change

Field not mandatory:

  • Other Beneficiary Information, or OBI

If this information is still needed, we recommend placing it elsewhere within the payment request prior to September 5, 2025.

New ISO terminology:

  • Beneficiary is now Creditor
  • Beneficiary Bank is now Creditor Agent
  • Originating Bank is now Debtor Agent
  • Intermediary Bank is now Intermediary Agent
  • Ordering Customer is now Debtor

Additional resources

Digital Banking Domestic Wire Recipient Update Guide

This guide will help you update a domestic wire recipient to make sure all required address information has been entered in the system and that the recipient is available for wire initiation.

View the Digital Banking Domestic Wire Recipient Update Guide PDF , Opens in a new tab

Digital Banking Domestic Wire Cancelling Wires & Recipient Update Guide

If you have a recurring or future-dated scheduled wire that contains a recipient and requires an update, the wire or recurring wire series must be deleted and reestablished after the recipient has been updated. This guide will walk you through the process.

View the Digital Banking Domestic Wire Cancelling Wires & Recipient Update Guide PDF , Opens in a new tab

A Better Approach to Payments
Prepare for ISO 20022

ISO 20022 FAQ
People often ask us

ISO 20022 is a new global standard for financial messaging. It will deliver more consistent and complete information for all types of financial transactions, enabling greater speed, efficiency and data-rich reporting. Financial institutions across the world have already started transitioning to ISO 20022 in phases, with the final phase scheduled for November 2025.

By the end of 2025, a majority of payment methods around the world will be using ISO 20022. Payment types will include domestic wires via Fedwire, cross-border and same-currency payments, and real-time payments through systems like FedNow, CHIPS, SEPA and CHAPS.

ISO 20022 helps standardize the message format for all financial transactions and includes more complete data. Payments can process faster, data-rich insights can help improve business decisions and you can leverage more automation for increased efficiency and accuracy.

You may need to update your processes, depending on your payment use cases. New information will continue to become available that may help determine if your organization will be affected.

If you'll be affected by the migration and need to update your processes, we'll contact you in advance and provide the information and support you need to successfully migrate to ISO 20022.

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