Structured Address Requirements

Fully unstructured (free-text) addresses are being phased out of payment instructions as part of the ISO 20022 migration. Where a payment includes the counterparty's address, it must be structured or hybrid, and include at least a country code and a city name. This applies to cross-border (SWIFT) and SEPA payments, and to most domestic schemes. The change primarily affects file-based payment initiation, but some bank APIs are introducing equivalent requirements.

Banks and payment schemes are introducing the requirements on different dates. Some schemes have postponed their deadlines, while some banks are proceeding as planned, starting from November 2026. Payments that don't meet the requirements may be rejected or delayed. We recommend starting early.

Update counterparty addresses

If you pay through the Atlar dashboard or API

Atlar flags every counterparty that is missing a city or country, but not all of them are necessarily affected. You can find and update them in the Atlar dashboard. Edit a single counterparty, or select several and set a shared city and country. To update many at once, export the list, fill in the missing values on each row, and upload the file as a CSV.

If you pay through an ERP

Update the address on the vendor record in your ERP.

• NetSuite: Navigate to Lists → Relationships → Vendors, edit the vendor, and add the street, city and country.
• Business Central: Navigate to Purchasing → Vendors, open the vendor, and add the address under General / Address & Contact.