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Bank of England delays November payment standards release

The Bank followed Swift’s postponement over readiness to remove unstructured address fields and is exploring an earlier CHAPS rule requiring structured addresses.

By AveNews SI desk2 minInfrastructure
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The Bank of England has delayed its November 2026 RTGS Standards Release after Swift postponed its own 2026 release over concerns about readiness to remove unstructured address fields. The delay was disclosed in minutes published by the Bank on 4 November from a forum held on 13 October 2026.

Forum members said work had already been done to prepare for the changes. The minutes give no replacement date for the Bank’s release.

An earlier address requirement is under discussion

The Bank asked for early industry views on requiring structured addresses through the CHAPS rulebook before Swift and CHAPS formally retire unstructured address fields. It said it wanted to realize industry-wide benefits from structured addresses and avoid a repeat of the current situation. Members supported exploring the idea but said further industry engagement was needed.

Members broadly supported requiring structured debtor addresses. They also said completing creditor address fields depended in particular on customers, while intermediary address fields still depended on improvements to EISCD, the UK’s sort-code directory.

Members raised compatibility with Swift channels as a key concern and said decisions needed to be made promptly because of firms’ budget cycles. They also said the wider implications for FPS needed to be understood, pointing to Pay.UK’s work on cross-border payments in FPS.

In the Technology daily for 4 November 2026

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Sources

  1. Bank of EnglandSummary of the RTGS CHAPS Industry Forum - 13 October 2026