HVCS participants join global payments messaging upgrade
3 Dec 2025
Major banks and financial institutions in Aotearoa New Zealand have moved into a new era of payments messaging, by completing their transition to ISO 20022 messaging for high-value and cross-border payments.
The milestone follows a multi-year upgrade by more than 11,000 Swift members in 200 countries and territories. A coexistence period between the MT and ISO 20022 messaging standards ended on 22 November, meaning all institutions on Swift’s global cross-border network must now use ISO 20022 payments instructions.
Participants in Payments NZ’s High-Value Clearing System (HVCS) and their representatives have confirmed a successful, on-time transition to the new standard –concluding a five-year change programme to incorporate it into their payments systems and processes.
HVCS handles around $6 trillion a year in large, irrevocable payments, such as property and business transactions and cross-border payments. Transactions are sent through Swift’s network and settled via ESAS accounts held at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Te Pūtea Matua, with Payments NZ maintaining the ruleset.
Payments NZ Manager Clearing Systems Jamie Wood says the upgrade is internationally significant and will unlock benefits for the payments ecosystem and economy in Aotearoa over time.
“ISO 20022 is a generational change in payments messaging,” says Wood. “It allows far more information to be sent within payment instructions, in an organised and structured form, which makes payments processing more accurate and efficient.”
“Some of the benefits we expect with this new standard include easier reconciliation for incoming payments and more efficient AML/CFT compliance checks.
“The global switch to this standard will particularly benefit Aotearoa as a trading nation, because institutions overseas are now ready to send and receive payments using this richer format. Over time we will start to see more efficient payment flows and movement of funds with our key trading partners
“We’re the rules body for HVCS, but it’s our Participants who have directly made a huge investment of time, effort and resource to get ready for this change. They deserve congratulations for putting in the effort and coming through this transition with flying colours,” Wood adds.
With the MT standard now retired from high-value and cross-border payments, Swift is expected to resume updates and changes to ISO 20022 put on hold during the coexistence period. Payments NZ efforts will continue supporting HVCS Participants with ongoing changes to the standard, as part of its industry governance and kaitiaki role over core clearing systems.