When you send living costs to your child in Sydney, or wire settlement funds to an Australian account, you usually think:
“As long as the name, account number, and BSB are right, it’s fine.”
Mostly, that’s been true. But that’s starting to change. The language of international payments is shifting.
Banks worldwide are moving to SWIFT’s new message standard, ISO 20022, and as a result the information a transfer needs is becoming far more structured.
Translated for Korean-Australians, it’s one sentence — “write recipient details sloppily, and your money is more likely to arrive late or bounce.”
The bottom line
- The international payment standard is shifting to ISO 20022
- Writing the recipient address as free text is going away
- A structured address — town and country — is becoming important
- Incomplete details can trigger extra checks or a bounce
- Not just banks — fintechs are also being pushed toward accurate customer data
- Going forward, an “information error” can be a more common transfer mishap than FX
The language of international payments is shifting
SWIFT is the international payment network the world’s banks use. They long used an old format called MT messages, and they’re now moving to the new standard, ISO 20022 (MX messages).
Put simply:
- Before: type freely, like a memo
- Going forward: enter precisely, in set fields
Think of an airport arrival card. Where you once wrote the address on one line, now it’s Country / City / Postcode / Address, each in its own field.
Why does the address suddenly matter?
Because international anti-money-laundering (AML) and sanctions screening is tightening, and at the same time data quality (automated processing) has become important. Banks now don’t just move money — they verify who sent it / who it’s going to / where that person lives more precisely.
So addresses like these can be a problem:
- ❌ “NSW” (no clear city or country)
- ❌ “Unit 5” (no city or country)
- ❌ A one-line blur where the city and country get buried
Whereas:
- ✅ “Sydney NSW 2000 Australia” (city, state, postcode, country clear)
- ✅ “Melbourne VIC 3000 Australia”
— information where at least the city and country are unambiguous is what’s required.
What matters most in your transfers now
- Recipient’s English name — must match the bank account
- Address — city and country are becoming effectively mandatory
- Bank details — in Australia, BSB · Account Number · Bank Name
- Contact — banks may need to do extra verification more often
The most common reason a transfer is delayed isn’t FX
Work in remittance long enough and you find a surprising truth. People always worry about the exchange rate. But the biggest reason money is late is — a mistyped name, a missing address, a wrong account number, a wrong BSB.
The changing standard doesn’t create a new problem. It just means the system checks the existing problem more strictly.
How do bank transfers and fintechs differ?
A bank’s SWIFT transfer is directly affected by this change. Some fintechs, by contrast, use local account networks, their own settlement, and local payout, so the impact can play out differently.
Either way, the importance of an accurate name, accurate address, and accurate recipient details is only going to grow.
Checklist: before you send to Australia
- ✓ Confirm the English name
- ✓ Confirm the BSB
- ✓ Confirm the account number
- ✓ Confirm the city and country
- ✓ Confirm the address in English
- ✓ Send large amounts with time to spare
- ✓ Make the first transfer a small test
So what should you do?
There isn’t much to do right now. But going forward, “close enough” will work less and less. Especially for large sums — settlement funds, property-sale proceeds, a child’s tuition, family transfers — building the habit of getting recipient details right from the start matters more.
Read next
- The Korea–Australia money map · Sending money from Korea to Australia
- Sending money from Australia to Korea · AUD–KRW exchange rate and remittance timing · Is the era of sending money to Korea by crypto ending?
Disclosure: The author, Jai Kim, is a co-founder of the remittance fintech WireBarley. This article is general information on public regulatory developments and does not recommend any particular service.
Disclaimer: This is general information on changes to international remittance rules; confirm actual requirements and input fields with your bank or remittance provider’s latest guidance.