Fedwire^® Funds Service ISO^® 20022 Implementation FAQ

ISO 20022 Overview

1. What is ISO 20022?

   ISO refers to the International Organization for Standardization, which is a network of national standards bodies that develop international standards. ISO publishes standards for a broad range of industries. The United States is a member of and contributor to ISO standards for the financial industry through the Accredited Standards Committee X9–Financial Industry Standards, Inc.

   The ISO 20022 standard supports financial messaging and uses extensible markup language (XML) syntax. ISO 20022 messages use a common data dictionary, can carry a considerable amount of information and can support payment messages from end to end, including the following:

   • Payment initiation (corporate to bank)
   • Interbank settlement (bank to bank)
   • Cash management (bank to corporate)

    

   The ISO 20022 standard is being adopted by many payments, clearing and settlement systems around the world.

2. Where can I learn about ISO 20022?

   The Business Payments Coalition (Off-site) has three publications, provided below, to help people learn more about ISO 20022. The BPC is an industry group of organizations and individuals working to promote adoption of electronic business-to-business (B2B) payments, remittance data and invoices.

   1. Understanding ISO 20022 Resource Guide (2017) (Off-site, PDF)
      This guide is a compilation of existing resources that provide information on the ISO 20022 standard, including tools that help with transitioning to the new standard such as mapping tools and implementation guides.
   2. U.S. Adoption of ISO 20022 (2017) (Off-site, PDF)
      This white paper is a companion document to the Understanding ISO 20022 Resource Guide and provides evidence of U.S. adoption of ISO 20022 for corporate to bank payment operations.
   3. ISO 20022 in Plain English (Off-site, PDF)
      This is the presentation from the webinar “Overview of ISO 20022: A Business Framework Discussion,” which covered the basics of ISO 20022 explained in plain language.

   
    
3. Can you provide an example of the ISO 20022 format?

   The following example uses the address fields to illustrate one difference between the former Fedwire Funds Service proprietary message format (FAIM) and the ISO 20022 format implemented on July 14, 2025.

   FAIM format	ISO 20022
   For each party field in a message, the FAIM format contained three free-text lines for address information:	The ISO 20022 format uses XML syntax and contains discrete fields designed to contain specific address information, which makes it easier to identify components of the address (e.g., country code):
   Address Line 1 (up to 35 characters) Address Line 2 (up to 35 characters) Address Line 3 (up to 35 characters)	Postal Address <PstlAdr> <AdrTp> (4 characters) <Dept> (up to 70 characters) <SubDept> (up to 70 characters) <StrtNm> (up to 70 characters) <BldgNb> (up to 16 characters) <PstCd> (up to 16 characters) <TwnNm> (up to 35 characters) <CtrySubDvsn> (up to 35 characters) <Ctry> (2 characters)

4. What announcements have previously been made about the implementation of ISO 20022?

   From 2017-2021, the Federal Reserve worked closely with the industry to seek input and map an approach and timeline for implementation of the ISO 20022 standard for payment messages for the Fedwire Funds Service. In 2022, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System announced that the Federal Reserve Banks would adopt the ISO 20022 message format for the Fedwire Funds Service on a single day, March 10, 2025. However, after careful consideration of industry requests and assessment of customer readiness, FRFS decided to reschedule the Fedwire Funds Service ISO 20022 implementation from March 10 to the final implementation date of July 14, 2025.

Fedwire Funds Service ISO 20022 Implementation

1. Why are the Federal Reserve Banks implementing ISO 20022 payment messages for the Fedwire Funds Service?

   The Federal Reserve Banks’ adoption of ISO 20022 messages for the Fedwire Funds Service is a strategic imperative. We believe modernizing the Fedwire Funds Service’s message format is a sound investment in the future. Adopting the ISO 20022 message standard should help the Federal Reserve Banks meet increasing customer demands for richer data, help customers more easily comply with evolving regulatory requirements, improve the Fedwire Funds Service’s interoperability with other payment systems in the interconnected, global economy, and help customers enhance their client services. The table below outlines several strategic reasons to adopt ISO 20022 messages for the Fedwire Funds Service.

   Strategic reasons to adopt ISO 20022

   Reason	Description
   Provides richer data	The ISO 20022 format contains structured fields to support longer names and specific address components, including a country code, which could reduce the risk of data loss and might improve the regulatory screening process. The ISO 20022 format supports a structured format for extended remittance information, which could improve straight-through processing for corporate business-to-business payments.
   Promotes domestic and cross-border interoperability	A common format facilitates transacting domestically and globally by using a single, open standard rather than multiple proprietary standards, which require mapping and can be costly and cumbersome for banks, corporates and vendors. The ISO 20022 format contains fields that are common across the suite of ISO 20022 payment messages so that the same information can be carried from end to end of a funds transfer, which could increase accuracy and straight-through processing and reduce operating costs for all customers. Other payments markets, including those of key U.S. trading partners, now use ISO 20022 (e.g., Europe, Canada, United Kingdom, Bangladesh, Brunei, China, India, Japan, Switzerland).
   Provides opportunities to improve existing processes or add new services	Moving to a common global format could: Reduce the need for market practices that arise due to inconsistent formats and field and/or message capacity limitations. Improve extended remittance information capabilities. Support value-added services (e.g., payment tracking and prioritization, administrative and reporting functions).
   U.S. payment systems could fall behind the rest of the world and be perceived as "outdated"	Lack of ISO 20022 adoption could: Degrade the U.S. dollar’s leadership as a global settlement currency. Encourage migration of U.S. dollar clearing offshore, to other currencies, or to emerging payment systems built with new technologies.

2. What is the difference between the ISO 20022 implementation for the Fedwire Funds Service and the FedNow Service?

   Federal Reserve Financial Services aligned the implementation of the ISO 20022 message format for the FedNow Service and the Fedwire Funds Service to the greatest extent possible, though there will be some differences in how the ISO 20022 message format is implemented for these services. For example, the Fedwire Funds Service will not support a request for information feature that is available for the FedNow Service.

   ISO 20022 message specifications for the FedNow Service and Fedwire Funds Service are published on the MyStandards website. Users can use the comparison feature to identify the differences between the ISO 20022 messages for the FedNow Service and the comparable ISO 20022 messages for the Fedwire Funds Service.

3. Did the ISO 20022 implementation have an impact on the speed in which the Fedwire Funds Service processes transactions?

   No. The Fedwire Funds Service continues to process messages at the same processing speed as it did prior to the ISO 20022 implementation on July 14, 2025.

4. How are retrievals supported with the ISO 20022 format?

   For users of FedPayments Manager – Funds application via the FedLine Advantage solution:

   Fedwire Funds Service customers can continue to retrieve past messages from the prior 15 months. Each past message is formatted in the version in which it was created and displays as such upon retrieval.

   For users of the FedLine Direct solution:

   The Federal Reserve Banks do not support prior-day retrieval requests following the cutover to the ISO 20022 message format. Fedwire Funds Service customers and service providers can retrieve messages in the ISO 20022 message format only. For example, when the ISO 20022 message format went live on Monday, July 14, 2025:

   • On Monday, can only retrieve ISO 20022 messages from the current day (Monday)
   • On Tuesday, can retrieve ISO 20022 messages from current day (Tuesday) and only 1 prior business day (Monday)
   • On Wednesday, can retrieve ISO 20022 messages from current day (Wednesday) and 2 prior business days (Monday and Tuesday)
   • On Thursday, can retrieve ISO 20022 messages from current day (Thursday) and 2 prior business days (Tuesday and Wednesday)

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