Cross-border payments have relied on data formats created decades ago. Digital finance has since become the backbone of global trade, but the messaging standards struggled to keep up. That changed in November 2025, when the SWIFT coexistence period ended and ISO 20022 became the sole standard for cross-border payment messages. This shift is bigger than a technical upgrade. The new format brings a growing demand for structured, machine-readable entity identity data, and the LEI code has a clear role in that picture.
What Is ISO 20022?
ISO 20022 is an international financial messaging standard. It replaces older formats such as the SWIFT MT messages that banks used for decades. The difference goes beyond the technical. Each payment now carries far more structured data, including precise information about the payer and the payee, reference numbers, and fields that matter for regulatory compliance.
SWIFT opened the migration in March 2023 with a coexistence period. During that time, both old and new message formats were accepted. That period ended on 22 November 2025. Today, ISO 20022 is the only standard for cross-border payment instructions on the SWIFT network.
Why Does This Affect Your Business?
Banks and financial institutions increasingly need accurate, structured data about who sends and who receives each payment. Without it, anti-money laundering compliance, sanctions screening, and regulatory reporting all become harder. Inaccurate identity data leads to payment delays, additional queries from the receiving bank, or rejection of the transaction entirely.
For companies making regular international payments, the quality of their identity data is no longer a back-office concern. It directly determines whether payments go through smoothly or get stuck.
What Role Does the LEI Code Play in ISO 20022?
One key field in ISO 20022 payment messages is the identifier for each party: who pays and who receives. The BIC (Business Identifier Code) identifies a financial institution. However, it does not always clearly identify the legal entity actually initiating the payment. Banks also assign BIC codes to branches, departments, and test systems. That makes it harder to pin down the real counterparty in a transaction.
The LEI code solves that problem directly. It is a 20-character global identifier that uniquely identifies a single legal entity, regardless of country, language, or how the company name appears across different registries. Adding the LEI to a payment message means any originator or beneficiary can be identified precisely, automatically, and in real time.
Three major international bodies have formally recognised this role. The BIS CPMI (Bank for International Settlements Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures) has endorsed the LEI under its harmonised ISO 20022 data requirements, placing it on equal footing with the BIC. The FSB (Financial Stability Board) supports the LEI as part of the G20 Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-Border Payments. GLEIF (Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation) further notes that the LEI is the only global identifier capable of precisely identifying sanctioned entities and supporting effective transaction screening.
Which Countries Already Require It?
The trend is already visible in practice. Several major jurisdictions have tied LEI use to specific payment systems.
The Bank of England has required the LEI in CHAPS payments between financial institutions since 1 May 2025. The plan is to extend this requirement to all large-value payments in the future. In China, every user of the CIPS system (Cross-border Interbank Payment System) receives an LEI. It serves both as an activation requirement and as a mandatory field in transaction data. In India, the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) has required the LEI for all non-individual entities making cross-border transactions of 50 crore rupees or more per transaction since October 2022. Both the sender and recipient LEI must also appear in RTGS and NEFT high-value payment messages.
The direction is consistent: ISO 20022 creates the framework and jurisdictions fill it with requirements, including LEI mandates.
FATF Recommendation 16 and the 2030 Deadline
In June 2025, FATF (Financial Action Task Force) updated its Recommendation 16, which governs the information accompanying cross-border payments. Under the revised rule, every cross-border payment or value transfer above 1,000 USD or EUR must include either a BIC code, an LEI code, or another unique official identifier for any legal entity involved as originator or beneficiary. Verified data, not just collected data, is what the rule requires.
This is a significant development. FATF gave member jurisdictions until the end of 2030 to transpose the requirements into national law. Normally, FATF updates take effect immediately. This extended transition period reflects the scale of change required across the global payments industry.
2030 may sound distant. It is not. Banks and payment platforms are already asking for structured identity data on every transaction. Companies that embed the LEI into their payment processes today adapt without disruption. Beyond future compliance, the practical benefits arrive straight away: faster processing through the SWIFT network, fewer payment delays, and a stronger identity signal to counterparties and compliance teams.
What Should You Do Today?
If your company sends or receives international payments regularly, the ISO 20022 transition already affects you. The question is not only whether your bank is compliant. It is whether your company’s identity data meets the standard that payments now require.
A valid LEI code means your data sits verified and current in the GLEIF global registry: legal name, registered address, company number, and ownership structure. These are exactly the fields that ISO 20022 payment messages carry and that regulators increasingly expect to see.
If your company does not yet have an LEI, you can register one in just a few minutes and it will be issued almost immediately. If you already have an LEI, check that it has been renewed and that your data is current, because a lapsed LEI loses its validity. If another provider currently manages your LEI, transferring it is straightforward and free of charge. For a full overview of pricing and multi-year options, visit our LEI number price page.