The timeline for the address data change related to EU payment standards (ISO 20022), which involves moving from unstructured addresses in payment messages to hybrid or fully structured addresses, has been delayed.
The previously announced effective date was 15th of November 2026. The European Payments Council (EPC) will announce a new effective date later, possibly during October 2026.
The impact of this address data change on the use of Procountor is minimal. Most of the changes will take place in the background. We will take all necessary measures in Procountor to ensure that payment processing continues normally when the change comes into effect.
Key points in brief:
The change has no impact on Procountor's current euro-denominated payments (SEPA payments), such as domestic payments, purchase invoice payments, salary payments, and bank transfers. Address information is not used for these payment types, and the regulation does not introduce any requirement to provide it in the future.
In practice, the change affects only foreign payments in Procountor, meaning non-euro payments or payments sent outside the euro area. In these payment files, address information will in future be required in either a hybrid or fully structured format.
The necessary changes related to foreign payments have already been taken into account in Procountor development, and the work is ongoing in cooperation with the banks supported by Procountor. All changes implemented in Procountor relate to the technical generation of payment files and bank integrations. There will be no visible impact on users.
Users do not need to change their procedures for foreign payments (or any other payments) as a result of the regulation. The most important thing is to continue providing all address information related to foreign payments (the beneficiary, the beneficiary's bank, and any intermediary bank) as accurately and comprehensively as possible after the regulation comes into effect.
We will release the required changes to foreign payment files in Procountor before the regulation's new effective date, which has not yet been confirmed.
The changes and their release will be carefully coordinated in active cooperation with all banks supported by Procountor.