ISO 20022 glossary
This glossary defines the key terms, abbreviations, and technical concepts used across ISO 20022 pacs messages and this site.
A
ACH — Automated Clearing House. A network that processes batched electronic payments between financial institutions.
AdrLine — Address Line. A free-text address field in ISO 20022 postal address structures. Up to 7 lines of 70 characters each. Being replaced by structured address elements for CBPR+ by November 2026.
ACCP — Accepted Customer Profile. A pacs.002 status code indicating that preceding checks (syntax, customer profile) have passed.
ACSC — Accepted Settlement Completed. A pacs.002 status code confirming that settlement on the debtor's account has been completed.
ACSP — Accepted Settlement in Process. A pacs.002 status code indicating all checks passed and settlement is in progress.
B
BAH — Business Application Header (head.001). A standardised envelope that wraps ISO 20022 business messages for transport via SWIFT. Contains routing information, message definition identifier, and sender/receiver BICs.
BIC — Business Identifier Code (ISO 9362). An 8 or 11 character code that uniquely identifies a financial institution. Format: BBBBCCLL (bank code + country + location) with optional BBB branch code.
C
CBPR+ — Cross-Border Payments and Reporting Plus. SWIFT's programme for migrating cross-border payment messaging from MT to ISO 20022. Went live March 2023.
CdtTrfTxInf — Credit Transfer Transaction Information. The main transaction-level building block in pacs.008 containing payment details, parties, amounts, and remittance information.
ChrgBr — Charge Bearer. Specifies who pays the transaction charges. Values: DEBT (debtor), CRED (creditor), SHAR (shared), SLEV (service level, SEPA only).
CLRG — Clearing system settlement. A settlement method where funds move through a clearing system such as TARGET2, EURO1, or CHIPS.
COVE — Cover method settlement. A settlement method where a separate pacs.009 cover payment handles the funding between correspondents while pacs.008 carries the customer data directly.
CSM — Clearing and Settlement Mechanism. An infrastructure that processes and settles payment instructions between participating institutions.
D
Dbtr — Debtor. The party that owes funds and initiates the payment. In pacs.008, the Dbtr element carries the debtor's name, postal address, identification, and country of residence.
DbtrAgt — Debtor Agent. The financial institution that services the debtor's account and sends the pacs.008 instruction.
E
E2E ID — End-to-End Identification (EndToEndId). A reference assigned by the originator that must remain unchanged across all agents in the payment chain. Used for customer-level traceability.
EPC — European Payments Council. The body that manages SEPA payment scheme rulebooks for credit transfers and direct debits.
F
FI — Financial Institution. A bank or other institution that participates in payment clearing and settlement.
FIToFI — Financial Institution to Financial Institution. Describes the interbank domain where pacs messages operate.
G
gpi — Global Payments Innovation. SWIFT's initiative for faster, transparent cross-border payments. Uses UETR for end-to-end tracking via a cloud-based Tracker.
GrpHdr — Group Header. The message-level metadata block in pacs messages. Contains MsgId, CreDtTm, NbOfTxs, settlement information, and payment type information.
H
Hybrid address — A postal address format that combines structured elements (StrtNm, TwnNm, Ctry) with unstructured AdrLine elements. Permitted during the transition period before the November 2026 structured address deadline.
I
IBAN — International Bank Account Number (ISO 13616). A standardised account number format used for cross-border and domestic payments. Validated using ISO 7064 Mod 97-10 checksum.
INDA — Instructed Agent settlement. A settlement method where funds settle on the books of the instructed agent, where the debtor agent holds a nostro account.
INGA — Instructing Agent settlement. A settlement method where funds settle on the books of the instructing agent, where the instructed agent holds a nostro account.
InstrId — Instruction Identification. A point-to-point reference between adjacent agents in the payment chain. May change at each hop.
IntrBkSttlmAmt — Interbank Settlement Amount. The amount that settles between the instructing and instructed agents, in the settlement currency.
ISO 20022 — An international standard for electronic data interchange between financial institutions. Defines a common data model and XML-based message formats for payments, securities, trade finance, and other financial domains.
L
LEI — Legal Entity Identifier (ISO 17442). A 20-character alphanumeric code that uniquely identifies legal entities participating in financial transactions. Used in OrgId/LEI for parties and FinInstnId/LEI for agents.
M
MsgId — Message Identification. A unique identifier for the message envelope, assigned by the sending agent. Changes at each hop in the payment chain.
MT — Message Type. SWIFT's legacy message format (e.g., MT103 for customer credit transfers, MT202 for financial institution transfers). Being replaced by ISO 20022 MX messages.
MX — The ISO 20022 XML message format used by SWIFT. MX messages replace MT messages for cross-border payments under CBPR+.
N
NbOfTxs — Number of Transactions. A Group Header element indicating how many individual transactions are contained in the message.
P
pacs — Payments Clearing and Settlement. The ISO 20022 business domain covering interbank payment messages.
pacs.002 — FI to FI Payment Status Report. Reports the processing status (accepted, rejected, pending, settled) of an earlier payment instruction.
pacs.003 — FI to FI Customer Direct Debit. Carries a customer direct debit instruction between banks for fund collection.
pacs.004 — Payment Return. Returns settled funds back through the payment chain when a payment cannot be applied.
pacs.007 — FI to FI Payment Reversal. Reverses a payment instruction from the original sender forward through the chain.
pacs.008 — FI to FI Customer Credit Transfer. The primary interbank message for customer credit transfers. Replaces MT103.
pacs.009 — Financial Institution Credit Transfer. Moves funds between banks on their own behalf. Covers funding, cover payments, and liquidity management. Replaces MT202/MT202COV.
pacs.010 — Financial Institution Direct Debit. Lets one bank debit another bank's own account under a bilateral agreement.
pacs.028 — FI to FI Payment Status Request. Actively requests the status of an earlier payment when no pacs.002 update has arrived.
pain — Payment Initiation. The ISO 20022 business domain covering customer-to-bank messages (e.g., pain.001 for credit transfer initiation).
PII — Personally Identifiable Information. Data that can identify an individual. pacs008 masks PII in structured logs.
PstlAdr — Postal Address. The address structure used for parties in pacs messages. Supports structured (StrtNm, TwnNm, Ctry) and unstructured (AdrLine) formats.
R
RJCT — Rejected. A pacs.002 status code indicating the payment has been rejected.
RmtInf — Remittance Information. Payment reference data carried in pacs.008. Supports unstructured (free text, max 140 chars) and structured (document references, amounts, creditor references) formats.
RTGS — Real-Time Gross Settlement. A payment system where transactions settle individually and in real time (e.g., TARGET2, Fedwire, CHAPS).
S
SCT — SEPA Credit Transfer. The euro credit transfer scheme managed by the EPC, using pacs.008.
SCT Inst — SEPA Instant Credit Transfer. The instant payment variant of SCT, settling in under 10 seconds.
SDD — SEPA Direct Debit. The euro direct debit scheme managed by the EPC, using pacs.003.
SEPA — Single Euro Payments Area. A payment integration initiative covering euro-denominated credit transfers, direct debits, and card payments across 36 European countries.
SLEV — Service Level. A charge bearer code mandatory for SEPA. Means charges follow scheme rules with no deductions from the transfer amount.
STP — Straight-Through Processing. Automated end-to-end payment processing without manual intervention.
SttlmMtd — Settlement Method. Defines how interbank settlement occurs: CLRG (clearing system), INDA (instructed agent), INGA (instructing agent), or COVE (cover payment).
T
TxId — Transaction Identification. An interbank reference assigned by the first instructing agent. Must not be altered by subsequent agents.
U
UETR — Unique End-to-End Transaction Reference. A UUID v4 identifier generated by the debtor agent and carried unchanged across all legs of a payment for gpi tracking.
X
XSD — XML Schema Definition. The formal schema that defines the structure, elements, and data types of an ISO 20022 XML message.
XXE — XML External Entity. A security vulnerability in XML parsing. pacs008 prevents XXE attacks using defusedxml.