Introduction
The countdown is on. In less than six months—November 22, 2025, to be precise—the coexistence period for the old Swift MT format for cross-border payments will come to an end, paving the way for native ISO 20022 messages across the entire Swift network. (This deadline applies for financial institutions on the Swift network, though corporates should also be aware of what their next steps will be. For more information on how the ISO migration affects corporates, click here.)
As of December 2024, only 32.9% of organizations had adopted the new messaging standard (Swift), leaving a substantial portion of the financial community scrambling to meet compliance requirements. For forward-thinking organizations, however, this transition represents far more than a regulatory headache. Instead, it is an unprecedented opportunity to unlock operational efficiencies, enhance data insights, and position oneself at the forefront of financial innovation.
To help bring clarity to this complex transition, Axletree partnered with Swift for an exclusive webinar, “From Confusion to Clarity: ISO 20022 & Swift Essentials Explained”. This collaborative session brought together industry experts to explore the current state of ISO 20022 migration, dive deep into the Swift Essentials package, and examine how organizations can strategically harness both initiatives to improve business operations.
Read on for five key takeaways—including what your organization needs to know to stay ahead of the curve.
ISO 20022 Momentum Is Real (and Visible)
The webinar opened with stark realities and encouraging progress updates. The momentum behind ISO 20022 adoption is undeniable, as Edward Brady, Head of the Diversified Dedicated Clients Team at Swift, revealed during the session: “As of the end of April, 38.5% of total in-scope traffic is being sent via native ISO.” This represents steady progress, with over 1.75 million messages per day being transmitted in the new standard across 165 countries sending and 220 countries receiving ISO 20022 messages.
However, significant hurdles remain, particularly for smaller institutions and emerging economies where adoption rates remain much lower. Brady identified two primary obstacles: First, legacy technology. It is not just Swift connectivity, but also older back-office systems that need to be updated to understand ISO; this requires time and money. Second, some institutions are waiting for their local market infrastructure to migrate before they move ahead.
Nevertheless, with the growing alignment of global standards and increasing recognition of the long-term benefits of ISO 20022, these challenges are expected to be gradually addressed, paving the way for a more seamless, efficient, and resilient payments ecosystem worldwide.
Reframe the Migration as an Opportunity
The transition to ISO 20022 isn’t merely about changing message formats; it’s about fundamentally transforming how financial data flows through the global payments ecosystem.
Omar Rodriguez, Director of Business Development at Axletree, framed this perfectly: “I see two camps. There is one camp that sees the value of ISO 20022 in terms of the data… And there is another camp that sees this as a compliance exercise. I think that ISO is a business data dictionary, and you can do so much more with it once you understand the real value of ISO 20022.”
The numbers tell the story. Newer message types offer more capacity for structured information than legacy message formats, allowing for more comprehensive and detailed messaging. This increase in data capacity enables enhanced levels of transaction detail, fraud detection capabilities, and regulatory reporting accuracy.
Swift Essentials is Already in Your Toolkit
While much attention focuses on the mandatory ISO 20022 migration, many organizations overlook a powerful suite of tools already included in their Swift membership: Swift Essentials.
As of January 1, 2024, every Swift user in scope has been automatically enrolled in the new Swift Essentials universal license (Swift). The package folds key value-added services into your base membership with no extra annual fees, including:
- Payment Pre-validation APIs: Real-time data checks before a payment leaves your ERP/treasury system
- SwiftRef APIs: Up-to-date reference data for BIC and IBAN formats
- KYC Registry: Simplified due-diligence document exchange
- Transaction Screening: Cloud sanctions screening and fraud-pattern detection
- Case Management: Features for streamlining exception handling and investigations
- Swift Go: Simpler low-value international payments
Brady explained the strategic synergy between Essentials and ISO 20022: pre-validation can validate data and reduce errors before a payment is sent, helping with ISO’s richer data requirements. Using SwiftRef ensures payments are structured correctly, validating BICs and other identifiers. Case resolution APIs help with post-payment investigations. These capabilities directly support ISO 20022 implementation while delivering immediate operational benefits—a perfect example of how organizations can harness both initiatives simultaneously.
Where Axletree Fits: Turning Standards into Strategy
For organizations concerned about the complexity of the migration, the collaborative webinar session highlighted Axletree’s comprehensive approach to bridging legacy and modern systems.
Axletree’s Symmetree enterprise system integration platform already converts any-to-any formats, including legacy Swift MT to and from ISO 20022/Swift MX, and natively supports Swift APIs. “We process 10 million transactions a day and $10 trillion in value annually,” said Rodriguez. Backed by nearly 25 years of industry experience, this proven scale and expertise ensure that clients can trust Axletree to deliver seamless transitions and sustained compliance.
Symmetree’s integration and translation capabilities address one of the most common migration challenges: converting legacy MT messages to the ISO 20022 format while maintaining operational continuity. This cloud-based approach eliminates the need for expensive system overhauls while ensuring compliance with the November deadline.
Ultimately, Axletree’s goal is to bring every client up to speed, regardless of where they are in the process. “If clients are late [for the migration], we have a tactical solution: Swift Basics and ISO 20022 training, impact assessments, and project planning,” Rodriguez adds. “Our mission is to connect financial entities and corporates through a single connectivity window to any network in the world, so that you can sleep soundly at night with peace of mind.”
Don’t Overlook the Next Milestones
ISO 20022 isn’t a single-day event. The next big mandate is the move to structured or hybrid postal addresses by November 2026 (Swift).
Brady emphasized the practical benefits of structured data with a compelling example. Today, if you send a payment to St. Petersburg, Florida, it might trigger a false positive sanctions screening result because of St. Petersburg, Russia. Structured data ensures that screening tools and intermediaries can instantly see the intended country and avoid unnecessary delays. This type of enhancement demonstrates how ISO 20022 enables faster, more efficient payments and better straight-through processing.
The message from industry leaders throughout the webinar was consistent: organizations should view ISO 20022 migration not as a one-time compliance exercise, but as a foundation for future innovation. Rodriguez’s closing advice from the collaborative session echoes this: “My final thought is for the community to really think about the data—how to use it, structure it, and maybe even monetize it in new products and services.”
Conclusion: From Compliance to Competitive Advantage
While Swift’s contingency plan offers temporary relief through continued translation services, with charges beginning in January 2026, the economic incentive for rapid adoption is clear. Ultimately, ISO 20022 and Swift Essentials are two sides of the same modern payments coin. One standardizes and enhances the message; the other hands you the tools to leverage that richer data. As revealed in “From Confusion to Clarity”, organizations that move now gain a unique opportunity to transform payment operations while meeting regulatory requirements.
The question is no longer whether to migrate—it’s how to quickly and strategically position oneself to maximize the benefits of richer, more structured financial data. In an increasingly connected global economy, the institutions that master this transition first will lead the next generation of financial innovation.
Ready to accelerate? Connect with Axletree today to map out your ISO migration and Swift Essentials activation plan. The clock is ticking—but clarity is within reach.
June 10, 2025
