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Swiss structured addresses from 14 November 2026: what your pain.001 files need

The EPC and Swift postponed their November 2026 address deadlines. Switzerland did not. From 14 November 2026 the Swiss Payment Standards (SPS 2026) apply, and every address in a Swiss payment file needs town and country in their own fields.

Checked against the SIX Credit Transfer guidelines SPS 2026 v2.3 and the SIX roadmap: 15 October 2026

  • Date stands: the Payments Committee Switzerland decided that no change to the introduction date is needed. Structured or hybrid addresses become mandatory from November 2026 for all parties and all payment types.
  • 14 November 2026: SPS 2026 (Credit Transfer guidelines version 2.3) takes effect. Payment orders with unstructured addresses must have an execution date before 14 November 2026.
  • Message version: the older 2009 versions such as pain.001.001.03 are accepted alongside pain.001.001.09 only until the November 2026 release. After that, use pain.001.001.09 (Swiss schema pain.001.001.09.ch.03).
  • One nuance: at the SIC release of 13 November 2026 the interbank address validation is waived, so some unstructured addresses may still be received. The rule in the guidelines stays, and your bank can apply it to your files.
  • Outside Switzerland: for SEPA (EPC) and Swift cross-border payments the end date is postponed. See the structured address deadline page.

The address rule

SPS 2026 allows two forms. In both, TwnNm and Ctry must always be given whenever an address is given, and the address is only allowed together with the party's name.

Structured (recommended) 
<Cdtr>
  <Nm>Beispiel AG</Nm>
  <PstlAdr>
    <StrtNm>Marktgasse</StrtNm>
    <BldgNb>12</BldgNb>
    <PstCd>3011</PstCd>
    <TwnNm>Bern</TwnNm>
    <Ctry>CH</Ctry>
  </PstlAdr>
</Cdtr>
Hybrid 
<Cdtr>
  <Nm>Beispiel AG</Nm>
  <PstlAdr>
    <PstCd>3011</PstCd>
    <TwnNm>Bern</TwnNm>
    <Ctry>CH</Ctry>
    <AdrLine>Marktgasse 12</AdrLine>
  </PstlAdr>
</Cdtr>
  • Hybrid: at most two AdrLine of up to 70 characters, only for what has no structured field. Don't repeat the postcode, town or country there.
  • Until further notice the house number may sit in StrtNm. For SEPA and cross-border payments the receiving country may still reject that.
  • AdrTp (address type) must not be sent.
  • For SEPA payments the name is limited to 70 characters.
  • The debtor is identified by the debtor account: banks take the debtor's details from their own records. Party addresses are optional for domestic payments, but any address you do give must follow the rule.

Not allowed from 14 November 2026 Unstructured

<PstlAdr>
  <Ctry>CH</Ctry>
  <AdrLine>Marktgasse 12</AdrLine>
  <AdrLine>3011 Bern</AdrLine>
</PstlAdr>

A country code alone does not fix it: without TwnNm the address is still unstructured.

The four Swiss payment types

SIX validates each payment against the rules of its type. The type follows from a few fields in the file:

TypeWhenKey rules
D DomesticCreditor account is a CH/LI IBAN (or an account at a Swiss bank given by IID or CH/LI BIC), currency CHF or EUREUR until November 2027. V2 instant payments: CHF only, local instrument INST or ITP, IBAN required.
S SEPAService level SEPAEUR only, creditor account IBAN, charges SLEV or SHAR (or none), no exchange-rate or QR reference.
X Cross-border / foreign currencyEverything else: foreign IBAN or bank, or a currency other than CHF/EURV1 foreign currency domestic, V2 abroad. Creditor bank by BIC, or by clearing code or name with full address.
C ChequePayment method CHKNo creditor account or creditor bank; creditor postcode required.

QR-bill payments

  • A QR-IBAN (a CH/LI IBAN whose institution ID is 30000 to 31999) requires a QR reference, and a QR reference is only allowed with a QR-IBAN.
  • The QR reference has 27 digits: 26 chosen by the invoice issuer plus a check digit (modulo 10, recursive). It goes in CdtrRefInf with type Prtry = QRR.
  • No unstructured remittance text (Ustrd) with a QR-IBAN, and the code SCOR is not used with it.
  • QR-IBAN and QR reference are for CHF; EUR is still possible until euroSIC ends in November 2027.
  • With a normal IBAN, an ISO creditor reference (SCOR, starting with RF and valid check digits, at most 25 characters) is validated for domestic payments; for SEPA and cross-border only when the issuer is given as ISO.

Other rules that reject files

  • Characters: only Basic Latin, Latin-1 Supplement and Latin Extended-A, plus Ș ș Ț ț and €. Anything else, such as emoji, gets the message rejected.
  • Message ID, payment block ID, instruction ID and end-to-end ID: only A–Z, a–z, 0–9, space and ' ( ) + , - . / : ?; no leading space or “/”, no trailing “/”, no “//”.
  • No empty elements, at most 99,999 payments per message, and a group control sum that matches the amounts.
  • The Swiss schema leaves out a number of ISO elements, for example the initiating party's address, contact phone numbers, account names and a second intermediary bank.

Checklist before 14 November

  1. Switch your export to pain.001.001.09 if it still writes .03.
  2. Give every address you send TwnNm and Ctry in their own fields: creditor, ultimate parties and banks given by name.
  3. Use hybrid if your system stores street and number in one field; never more than two address lines, and no repeated postcode or town.
  4. Check QR-bill payments: QR-IBAN with QR reference, nothing else.
  5. Test a file with your bank's test channel or validation portal before going live; banks may apply extra rules.
Check a Swiss pain.001 file in your browser

PacsLint applies the SPS 2026 rules to payments from Swiss and Liechtenstein accounts: payment types, addresses, QR-IBAN and references, characters and the Swiss schema restrictions. It also validates the ISO 20022 schema, IBANs and control totals, and suggests address fixes. Your file never leaves your browser.

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Sources