Experts believe ISO 20022 will determine which blockchains become part of global financial system
SWIFT has discontinued support for the MT message format in international payments and fully transitioned to ISO 20022. For banks, financial institutions, and crypto market players, this marks one of the most significant upgrades in recent years.
Under the new standard, payment messages will include more comprehensive information about senders and recipients, reducing transaction errors and speeding up settlements. Fraud-prevention and anti-abuse procedures have also been enhanced.
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Although ISO 20022 governs operations within the SWIFT network, several blockchains and their ecosystems are technically compatible with the new standard.
Ripple, for example, has already integrated ISO 20022 support into RippleNet. The project participates in ISO working groups and offers APIs that can process ISO-compliant messages via the XRP Ledger to banking institutions.
Stellar has also implemented ISO message mapping within its network for KYC and AML checks. Joint initiatives such as IBM World Wire have demonstrated that Stellar-based systems can interact smoothly with banking sector participants using ISO 20022.
Cardano’s network can also be configured to meet the new standard, as its ecosystem provides detailed metadata for transactions and smart contracts. Chainlink, in collaboration with SWIFT, has already tested ISO 20022 messaging, leading some analysts to suggest the ecosystem could serve as an effective bridge between banks and decentralized systems.
