pain.001 Addresses: Structured, Hybrid and Unstructured

A pain.001 payment file names the debtor and every creditor, and each may carry a postal address. For years the address could be a few free-text lines. Banks and payment networks are now moving to addresses with separate fields, and files that still use free text are starting to be rejected. This guide explains the three forms and what to change.

The three forms

• Structured. The address is split into elements: street name (StrtNm), building number (BldgNb), postal code (PstCd), town name (TwnNm) and country (Ctry), and in version .09 and later a few more such as building name or post box. The minimum most banks ask for is town name and country; street, building number and postal code are recommended.
• Hybrid. The minimum structured elements (town and country) plus up to two free address lines (AdrLine) of at most 70 characters, for details that do not fit the fields, such as "c/o" lines or a post box. Support for hybrid addresses depends on the bank.
• Unstructured. Only AdrLine elements. This is the form being phased out.

What banks have said

The dates differ by bank and the notices change, so treat these as examples read on 6 October 2026, not as rules. UBS's notice says QR-bills with unstructured addresses can be accepted for payment only until 30 September 2026, and describes three structured options: name, town and country as the minimum; the full set with street, building number and postal code as the recommended form; and the hybrid form. PostFinance says it supports QR-bills with unstructured addresses until 13 November 2026, and that pain.001 files with unstructured addresses will for the time being not be rejected outright, though successful processing cannot be guaranteed. The Swiss Payment Standards and SWIFT's cross-border messages point the same way, with November 2026 as the milestone people mention. Ask your own bank which date and which form applies to you.

Common mistakes

• Writing everything into one AdrLine ("Hauptstrasse 1, 8000 Zürich") instead of splitting it.
• Providing a street and postal code but no TwnNm or Ctry; the file then has structured elements but not the minimum.
• Putting the building number inside the street name. Some banks tolerate this inside Switzerland and Liechtenstein, but SEPA and international payments may reject it.
• Using a country name ("Switzerland") where the two-letter ISO code ("CH") is required.
• Using three or four AdrLine elements in a hybrid address where two are accepted.

How to fix a file

The address data lives in your accounting or ERP system, so the fix is there: split the stored address into fields, make sure every creditor has a town and a two-letter country, and re-export. The pain.001 Payment File Checker classifies every debtor and creditor address in a file as structured, hybrid, unstructured or incomplete, so you can see which suppliers still need attention. Keep in mind that it is a pre-check: your bank's implementation guide decides what is accepted.

Related changes

The same move to structured data shows up in the Swiss QR-bill, whose newest guideline removes the combined address type; see the Swiss QR-bill data guide and the Swiss QR-Bill Generator. For reading the bank's answer after you pay, see camt.052, camt.053 and camt.054.