Slow Global Shift to ISO 20022 Continues Despite Deadlines

The international SWIFT payment system continues its migration to the new ISO 20022 standard, though progress remains slow. In May 2025, over 1.84 million ISO 20022 payment instructions were sent daily via FINplus, involving more than 2,300 senders and over 6,000 recipients across 180+ countries, with global coverage expanding. However, only 41.2% of payment messages have adopted ISO 20022, indicating that nearly 60% still utilize older MT formats, despite the transition period ending in November 2025. This slow adoption, especially among smaller banks, highlights the ongoing challenges in the global migration. ISO 20022's development lays a foundational role in the digital transformation, supporting CBDC and asset tokenization, and ensuring compatibility with DeFi, AI, and digital identities. The outlook emphasizes the importance of security through cold storage of cryptocurrencies to avoid SWIFT disconnection risks, signaling that blockchain adoption is moving from a possibility to inevitability.