Customer Credit Transfer Initiation
The <pain.001> Customer Credit Transfer Initiation in the ISO 20022 Standard is the format for initiating payments. It enables corporate clients to submit payment orders accurately and efficiently to their bank using the large number of structured payment details supported.
SEPA
With SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area), standardised procedures for cashless payments were introduced across Europe, including in Germany. These procedures currently apply to euro payments in the 27 EU member states, the three other EEA member states – Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway – as well as Monaco, Switzerland, San Marino, Andorra, Vatican City, and the United Kingdom. From 5 October 2025, Albania, Moldova, Montenegro, and North Macedonia will also join the SEPA payment area. Payments, whether domestic or abroad, can be made via SEPA credit transfer, SEPA instant credit transfer, or SEPA direct debit.
SEPA is based on the ISO 20022 standard. In the XML format, the message type <pain.001> (CustomerCreditTransferInitiation) is used for credit transfers, while <pain.008> (CustomerDirectDebitInitiation) is used for direct debits.
The German Banking Industry Committee (DK) defines rules for populating the data formats in Appendix 3 of the Specification for Remote Data Transmission Between Customer and Bank According to the DFÜ Agreement. The most recent data formats are available on the EBICS (Electronic Banking Internet Communication Standard) website of the German Banking Industry Committee: https://www.ebics.de/de/datenformate.
Hybrid / semi-structured addresses (i.e. addresses that contain structured and unstructured elements) will be introduced in SEPA payment transactions from autumn 2025. For further details, please refer to the information under Cross-Border Payments.
The latest SEPA LifeCycle and SEPA format versions supported by DZ BANK can be found at: https://www.ebics.de/de/datenformate/format-lifecycle.
Further information about SEPA payments is available at: https://firmenkunden.dzbank.de/content/firmenkunden/de/homepage/leistungen/Zahlungsverkehr/zahlungen_in-_und_ausland/sepa-zahlungsverkehr.html.
Cross-Border Payments
Significant changes are imminent for cross-border payments, as financial message formats are globally standardised through the migration to ISO 20022. This migration, which began in Europe with SEPA, will now be rolled out worldwide, paving the way for a unified, global payments messaging standard.
In this process, the traditional DTAZV customer format will be discontinued. It will be replaced by the ISO 20022 <pain.001> message format, marking the end of the last entirely national data format in the German payments sector.
The new format offers significantly more functionality and flexibility, such as the ability to include a unique payment reference and structured address data when initiating a payment.
The German Banking Industry Committee (DK) has fixed the ISO 20022 <pain.001.001.09> message type for submitting cross-border payments. The applicable DK standard is outlined in Appendix 3 of the Specification for Remote Data Transmission Between Customer and Bank According to the DFÜ Agreement, Chapter 3.1 “Cross-Border Payment Transactions Based on ISO Standard 20022”, and in the supplementary guidelines of the DZ BANK product specification.
The order type (which corresponds to the current Business Transaction Format (BTF) parameters) <AXZ> has been introduced for transmitting <pain.001.001.09> orders via EBICS. You can request us to activate this order type for you at any time.
The general data format specification and related resources are available at: https://www.ebics.de/de/datenformate.
To ensure a timely transition from the DTAZV format to the <pain.001.001.09> format for cross-border payments, you will need to make changes to your software products and ERP systems. Please contact your relevant vendors for this in good time.
As before, address details for the parties involved must be provided for payments of a cross-border nature. In contrast to the current DTAZV format, the new <pain.001> format uses structured address data only. This means that each element of the address is specified in a designated field. Using German addresses as an example, the payer’s name, street name, house number, postal code, city, and country are each entered in their own dedicated field.
Delivery of correct address data is essential, particularly for cross-border payments, and must already be ensured in the upstream systems. Please make certain that your software is updated to meet the new market requirements, ensuring that payment requests contain structured address data no later than 21 November 2026.
DZ BANK supports three options for structuring address information. We recommend submitting fully structured addresses.
- Minimum requirement: Submit <Name>, <City>, and <Country> in separate structured fields. All other address fields remain unused.
- Fully structured address data: In addition to the minimum requirements, all other address information is also provided in structured form.
- Semi-structured / hybrid address assignment: From November 2025, it will be possible to use semi-structured (hybrid) address assignment. In this case, in addition to the mandatory <City> and <Country> details, you will also be able to include supplementary information (e.g. street and house number) in the unstructured free-text lines of the <AdrLine> field of your payment requests.
Please check your internal systems and master data and convert these into structured data if necessary.
It is already possible to submit cross-border payments to DZ BANK in <pain.001.001.09> format. During the transition period, which ends in November 2026, you will be able to use both formats (DTAZV and <pain.001 AXZ>) for submitting cross-border payments.
Relay message – Request for Transfer (MT101)
In addition to cross-border payments, changes are also impending for the cross-border forwarding – or relay – formats. The long-standing SWIFT <MT101> customer format will be replaced by the ISO 20022 <pain.001 relay> message format.
The new format offers significantly more functionality and flexibility. Its richer, structured information content facilitates the automated validation of payments in your systems, thereby reducing the need for manual intervention.
Adapting to the new format during the migration will require changes both to the processing systems and their interfaces. At the same time, however, it allows you to work with a wider range of better structured payment transaction data.
If you are a bank that exchanges transfer requests (Requests for Transfers) with us on behalf of corporate customers, further information is available for you here.
From November 2025, the <pain.001.001.09 relay> format will gradually begin replacing the existing SWIFT <MT101> format in full.
The order type (which corresponds to the current Business Transaction Format (BTF) parameters) <RTX> has been created for transmitting <pain.001.001.09 relay> files via EBICS. We will notify you as soon as this order type becomes available.
A data format specification and related resources will be published shortly on this page under “Downloads”.
A general specification of cross-border formats is also provided in the German Banking Industry Committee (DK) guidelines, available at: https://www.ebics.de/de/datenformate/internationale-datenformate.
Adapting to the submission of Request for Transfer in the new <pain.001.001.09 relay> format will require changes to your software products and ERP systems. Please contact your relevant vendors for this in good time.
DZ BANK will be able to receive the new <pain.001 relay> format from third-party banks on your behalf, starting in November 2025.
The introduction of <pain.001.001.09 relay> to replace <MT101> for submissions to third-party banks is scheduled for the beginning of 2026.
DZ BANK plans to continue supporting the <MT101> format until November 2026. During the transition period, you will be able to submit Request for Transfer using either the <MT101> or <pain.001 relay> format.
