What changes on 14 November 2026 for payments and Swiss QR-bills?

Two things. First, from 14 November 2026 the Swiss Payment Standards no longer allow unstructured addresses in any payment order; banks have to update standing orders and templates by 13 November. Second, version 2.4 of the QR-bill Implementation Guidelines applies. Nothing changes for CHF bills with a structured address. For EUR bills, QR-IBAN and QR reference are no longer possible.

Our QR-bill checker tells you whether your bill is ready for this date. It checks the QR code directly in your browser; nothing is uploaded.

The end of unstructured addresses in all payment orders

So far, the address change has mostly concerned the QR-bill. From 14 November 2026 it applies to every payment order under the Swiss Payment Standards: domestic payments, SEPA credit transfers and cross-border payments, for all parties involved. Every address must be structured or hybrid and contain at least the town and country. Unstructured addresses are only allowed for orders with an execution date before 14 November 2026.

For QR-bills with the old combined address (type K), this is the end of the road. New bills have not been allowed to use this type since 21 November 2025. Several banks only guarantee processing old bills until the end of September 2026, PostFinance until 13 November 2026. From 14 November, such a bill can be refused by any bank. Who is affected: see Structured address on the Swiss QR-bill.

Standing orders and templates by 13 November

Banks have to convert stored standing orders and payment templates to structured addresses by 13 November 2026. For billers, that means: send an up-to-date QR-bill to customers, members or tenants who pay by standing order. That way they have the correct address to hand when they adjust or re-enter their standing order. For associations and landlords: Swiss QR-bill Excel or Word template.

Hybrid address: for payment files, not for the QR-bill

Besides the structured address, the Swiss Payment Standards also define a hybrid address: town, postcode and country structured, plus up to two free address lines. It has been allowed in payment files (pain.001) since November 2025. Support is optional per bank, though; PostFinance, for example, does not support it. In those files, the bank fills in your own address as the ordering party from its customer records.

The hybrid address does not exist on the QR-bill. Only the fully structured address (type S) is provided for there.

QR-bill version 2.4: what's new

Implementation Guidelines 2.4 apply from 14 November 2026 and were introduced with the SIC release of 13 November 2026. The main points:

CHF: no technical changes needed. A correct CHF bill with a structured address remains valid.
EUR: no more QR-IBAN or QR reference. Because euroSIC is being discontinued, QR-IBAN and QR reference are now for CHF only. EUR bills use a normal IBAN with a Creditor Reference (RF…) or no reference.
EUR moves to SEPA. By November 2027 at the latest, QR-bills in euros are processed as SEPA credit transfers. An unstructured message is then not guaranteed to reach the biller.
Minor changes: headings also in Romansh, "line" instead of "field" in the wording, SIX takes over the billing-information syntax, clarified wording on the structured address.
Tolerance: a building number in the street field rather than its own field is "for the time being" not rejected. A separate field is still recommended.

Version 2.3 remains valid until November 2027. All dates: Swiss QR-bill timeline 2020–2027.

Why the date stands even though others postponed

Swift and the European Payments Council suspended their own November 2026 deadline in summer 2026. Switzerland is keeping 14 November 2026, as decided by the Payment Committee Switzerland. However, the SIC release of 13 November 2026 does not introduce interbank address validation, so unstructured addresses may still arrive from abroad.

Quick answers

I issue CHF bills with a structured address. Do I need to do anything? No, not because of version 2.4. Running one through the checker doesn't hurt, though.

I issue EUR bills with a QR-IBAN. Then you need to switch: a normal IBAN with a Creditor Reference, or no reference.

Check your current bill before 14 November with the QR-bill checker.