Delay to the November 2026 RTGS standards release

Bank of England statement

Published on
27 August 2026

Statement

On 27 August 2026,
Swift announced its decision to delay the November 2026 Swift Standards Release based on industry’s request for additional time to prepare for the removal of the unstructured postal address format following concerns about global readiness.

After careful consideration, we are also delaying what would have been the November 2026 RTGS standards release, this includes the messaging standards for CHAPS payments. Maintaining global alignment is important to preserving interoperability and to avoid the introduction of new implementation risks, and we have therefore worked closely with Swift and other major market infrastructures to support a co-ordinated approach.

Our November 2026 RTGS standards release will therefore be deferred in its entirety. This is consistent with Swift delaying the entire CBPR+ standards release and avoids challenges and risks that might otherwise create risks for both the Bank and industry from trying to separate changes at this late stage.

We will continue to engage with Swift, other market infrastructures, and RTGS participants directly on next steps, while also providing broader updates at ISO 20022: Implementing the global payments messaging standard within CHAPS and RTGS to support organisations in amending their own planning as further detail on revised timelines becomes available.

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