Chronicle of a Death Foretold
We've been hearing about it for almost 3 years without paying much attention: the "Swift" and CFONB formats used by companies must be gradually replaced by their XML equivalent.
The date of the last weekend of November 2025, often mentioned, only concerns banks. For businesses, November 2026 seems likely, but it's not a hard and fast rule; simply discuss it with your banks, who will likely be flexible if you express your willingness to comply.
Context
Since the creation of SWIFT in 1973, all interbank exchanges have been conducted via formats commonly known as "Swift", each code of which begins with MT (ie Message Type) followed by 3 digits.
After a major communication campaign spanning several years, in March 2024 SWIFT mandated that banks replace MT formats (where numbers begin with 1, 2, and 9) with its ISO 20022 XML equivalent. This is known as the MT-MX (for Message XML) migration. While this requirement initially applied only to interbank transactions, it now affects businesses, which are being progressively encouraged to abandon SWIFT formats in favor of its ISO 20022 XML equivalent, with increasing pressure
Why the change in format?
The deployment of SEPA has demonstrated and confirmed the usability of the XML format, its flexibility, and the richness of its tags. The purpose of this format change is twofold:
(1) Harmonize all banking payment systems to allow end-to-end use of the XML format (i.e. from the issuing company to the receiving company via their respective banks);
(2) Exploit the capabilities of this XML format to enhance filtering, tracking and compliance capabilities.
In short, all banks worldwide must now only manage XML format to facilitate the tracking and control of transported data.
Furthermore, this replacement affects not only the Swift "MT" format but also all domestic formats, as XML allows for the entry, transmission, and tracking of significantly more information. Indeed, a CFONB160 format lacks fields for entering addresses, and a CFONB320 format does not allow for specifying the time of payment.
Finally, the richness of the XML format offers banks the possibility of offering new services such as VoP and IP which would have been impossible to implement and monitor with the old formats.
How to do it?
For each of your banks and all relevant accounts, you simply transfer your banking contracts and select the corresponding XML services, regardless of the protocol (SWIFT, EBICS, or other).
Finally, if you believe your applications will not be compatible before the November 2026 deadline, ask NEOFI to perform these conversions! The Ready for XMLv9 was designed for this purpose!
