Wires postal address update (November 2027)

Overview

The Federal Reserve is updating the FedWire Funds Service to require structured postal addresses, effective November 2027. This change aligns FedWire with the ISO 20022 international messaging standard.

Instead of three unstructured address lines, you will provide address components in clearly defined fields. This ensures address information is transmitted more clearly and accurately, reducing errors and manual intervention across the payment chain.

Action Required: All Cross River partners must update their integrations as soon as possible to allow sufficient time for testing before the Federal Reserve's go-live date. The functionality is already live in production in Crossriver with full backward compatibility.

What's changing

Federal Reserve timeline

Milestone	Date
Testing opens	May 2026
Crossriver go-live date	June 2026
FedWire go-live date	November 2027

Cross River timeline

Milestone	Date	Status
Sandbox environment available	Now	✅ Available for Testing
Partner integration deadline	TDB	⚠️ Required
Federal Reserve go-live	November 2027	Waiting for confirmation from the Fed on the exact date

How Cross River is implementing this change

The new postalAddress object

We're adding a new postalAddress object to replace the current address1, address2, and address3 fields.

Instead of this:

{
  "address1": "123 Main Street, Suite 400",
  "address2": "New York, NY 10001",
  "address3": ""
}

Use this:

{
  "postalAddress": {
    "adrLine1": "123 Main Street",
    "adrLine2": "Suite 400",
    "city": "New York",
    "state": "NY",
    "postalCode": "10001",
    "country": "US"
  }
}

Required fields

Field	Description	Example
adrLine1	Street address (up to 35 characters)	"123 Main Street"
city	City or town name (up to 35 characters)	"New York"
country	Two-letter country code (ISO 3166-1)	"US"

Optional fields

Field	Description	Example
adrLine2	Additional address info (up to 35 characters)	"Suite 400"
state	State, province, or region (up to 35 characters)	"NY"
postalCode	Postal or ZIP code (up to 16 characters)	"10001"

Future Enhancement: Character limits for adrLine1 and adrLine2 expand from 35 to 70 characters in a future release to match the Federal Reserve's full capacity.

Where this applies

The new postalAddress object is used anywhere you currently provide address information in wire transfer requests:

Wire transfer

You must provide addresses for:

Originator - The party sending the wire

Originator financial institution - The bank sending the wire (if different from originator)

Beneficiary - The party receiving the wire

Beneficiary financial institution - The receiving bank

Intermediary financial institution - Any intermediary banks (optional)

Drawdown request

Addresses are required for:

Originator (Creditor) - The party requesting funds

Originator financial institution - The requesting bank

Drawdown debit account holder (Debtor) - The party from whom funds are drawn

Beneficiary financial institution - The debit account holder's bank

Drawdown response

Addresses are required for:

Originator - The party responding to the drawdown request

Webhook events: Wires

All webhooks containing wire transfer information will also include the new postal address information for all parties in the transaction (as there are no embedded objects in webhooks, the new fields are listed

Migration guide

Step 1: Review (now)

Review this documentation and understand the new postalAddress structure

Identify all systems that send wire transfer requests or process wire webhooks

Note that three fields are now required: street address, city, and country

Step 2: Update your code (as soon as possible)

Replace address1, address2, address3 with the postalAddress object

Ensure you provide all three required fields: adrLine1, city, country

Update webhook handlers to read from postalAddress instead of address1/2/3

Add validation to ensure required fields are present before sending requests

Step 3: Test in sandbox (now)

Use Cross River's sandbox environment to test your changes

Test all wire transfer types: standard transfers, drawdown requests, drawdown responses

Verify webhooks are processed correctly with the new format

Test with both domestic (US) and international addresses

Step 4: Deploy to production (TBD)

Deploy your updated integration to production

Monitor for any validation errors

Confirm webhooks are processing correctly

Step 5: Monitor after go-live (November 2027)

Monitor for any FedWire rejections related to address formatting

Ensure payments continue to process successfully

Transition Period

During transition (Now through November 2027):

Cross River accepts either old and new format but not both

After November 2027:

The Federal Reserve will reject wire transfers using the old unstructured format

Payments using the old format will fail after November 2027

All partners must use the new postalAddress format

Common questions

Q: Can I continue using address1, address2, address3 during the transition?

A: Yes, Cross River supports either formats until November 2027. However, after that date, the Federal Reserve will reject wires with the old format.

Q: What if my address doesn't fit in 35 characters?

A: Cross River will expand the character limit to 70 characters in a future release. For now, abbreviate as needed or split the address across adrLine1 and adrLine2.

Q: What if I only have street address and city, but no state or postal code?

A: That's fine. Only adrLine1, city, and country are required. The adrLine2, state, and postalCode fields are optional.

Q: How do I format international addresses?

A: Use the appropriate 2-letter country code (e.g., "GB" for United Kingdom, "CA" for Canada) and format the address according to that country's conventions. The state field can be used for provinces or regions.

Q: What are valid country codes?

A: Use ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes (2 uppercase letters). Examples: US (United States), GB (United Kingdom), CA (Canada), DE (Germany), FR (France), JP (Japan). See the full list here.

Q: Can I test the new format now?

A: Yes! Our sandbox environment is already live and supports the new format. We encourage you to begin testing as soon as possible.

API changes - request examples

Wire transfer request

Before (current format)

{
  "accountNumber": "1234567890",
  "businessFunctionCode": "CTR",
  "receiverRoutingNumber": "021000021",
  "amount": 1000000,
  "purpose": "Invoice payment",
  "originator": {
    "idCode": "D",
    "identifier": "1234567890",
    "name": "Acme Corporation",
    "address1": "456 Business Blvd",
    "address2": "New York, NY 10002",
    "address3": ""
  },
  "beneficiaryFi": {
    "idCode": "D",
    "identifier": "021000021",
    "name": "JP Morgan Chase Bank",
    "address1": "270 Park Avenue",
    "address2": "New York, NY 10017",
    "address3": ""
  },
  "beneficiary": {
    "idCode": "D",
    "identifier": "9876543210",
    "name": "Example LLC",
    "address1": "789 Commerce Ave",
    "address2": "Los Angeles, CA 90001",
    "address3": ""
  }
}

After (new format)

{
  "accountNumber": "1234567890",
  "businessFunctionCode": "CTR",
  "receiverRoutingNumber": "021000021",
  "amount": 1000000,
  "purpose": "Invoice payment",
  "originator": {
    "idCode": "D",
    "identifier": "1234567890",
    "name": "Acme Corporation",
    "postalAddress": {
      "adrLine1": "456 Business Blvd",
      "city": "New York",
      "state": "NY",
      "postalCode": "10002",
      "country": "US"
    }
  },
  "beneficiaryFi": {
    "idCode": "D",
    "identifier": "021000021",
    "name": "JP Morgan Chase Bank",
    "postalAddress": {
      "adrLine1": "270 Park Avenue",
      "city": "New York",
      "state": "NY",
      "postalCode": "10017",
      "country": "US"
    }
  },
  "beneficiary": {
    "idCode": "D",
    "identifier": "9876543210",
    "name": "Example LLC",
    "postalAddress": {
      "adrLine1": "789 Commerce Ave",
      "city": "Los Angeles",
      "state": "CA",
      "postalCode": "90001",
      "country": "US"
    }
  }
}

Webhook example

As partners and other FedWire users adopt the new structured postal address elements the following additional fields can be populated potentially before and after November 2027:

OriginatorCountry

OriginatorState

OriginatorPostalCode

OriginatorCity

BeneficiaryCountry

BeneficiaryState

BeneficiaryPostalCode

BeneficiaryCity

In addition, the following webhook fields will continue to exist and be populated as follows:

OriginatorAddress1 – populated from Originator.Address1 if present or Originator.PostalAddress.AdrLine1 if present

OriginatorAddress2 – populated from Originator.Address2 if present or Originator.PostalAddress.AdrLine2 if present

OriginatorAddress3 – populated from Originator.Address3 if present otherwise NOT populated (null)

BeneficiaryAddress1 – populated from Beneficiary.Address1 if present or Beneficiary.PostalAddress.AdrLine1 if present

BeneficiaryAddress2 – populated from Beneficiary.Address2 if present or Beneficiary.PostalAddress.AdrLine2 if present

BeneficiaryAddress3 – populated from Beneficiary.Address3 if present otherwise NOT populated (null)

{
"eventType: "Wire.Payment.Processed",
"eventId": "evt_12345",
"timestamp": "26-06-30T10:12:130Z"
{
    "paymentId": "9d63d00b-ba29-4102-9298-b4790091c7e4",
    "accountNumber": "358449449133",
    "direction": "Outbound",
    "imad": "20260630MFP00057000347",
    "omad": null,
    "paymentType": "Transfer",
    "purpose": "COINBASE WALLET USD WITHDRAWAL",
    "amount": "100",
    "clientIdentifier": null,
    "originatingFiName": "CROSS RIVER BANK",
    "originatingFiIdentifier": "021214891",
    "originatorName": "COINBASE INC",
    "originatorIdentifier": "358449449133",
    "originatorAddress1": "100 PINE STREET",
    "originatorAddress2": "SUITE 1250",
    "originatorAddress3": "SAN FRANCISCO CA 94111 US",
    "beneficiaryFiName": "CROSS RIVER BANK",
    "beneficiaryFiIdentifier": "021214891",
    "beneficiaryName": "SYNTH FEDWIRE PAYIN",
    "beneficiaryIdentifier": "000043400588",
    "beneficiaryAddress1": "123 MAIN ST APT 4B",
    "beneficiaryAddress2": "ARVADA CO 80001",
    "beneficiaryAddress3": "US",
    "beneficiaryReference": "RTL-7W4624TZ",
    "senderReference": "75F1NOVN045",
    "originatorToBeneficiary1": null,
    "originatorToBeneficiary2": null,
    "originatorToBeneficiary3": null,
    "originatorToBeneficiary4": null,
    "coreTransactionId": "6eb8c8a6-9145-485b-9513-b4790091c7e4",
    "senderRoutingNumber": "021214891",
    "originalPaymentId": "9d63d00b-ba29-4102-9298-b4790091c7e4",
    "originatorCountry": null,
    "originatorState": null,
    "originatorPostalCode": null,
    "originatorCity": null,
    "beneficiaryCountry": null,
    "beneficiaryState": null,
    "beneficiaryPostalCode": null,
    "beneficiaryCity": null
}
}

During migration all webhook address information will continue to be provided in the old format while the new structured postal address elements will be provided with NULL values.

Validation rules

The API validates the following:

Rule	Result if Not Met
adrLine1 is required, max length 35	Request rejected (400 Bad Request)
city is required	Request rejected (400 Bad Request)
country is required	Request rejected (400 Bad Request)
country must be a valid 2-letter code (e.g., US, GB, CA)	Request rejected (400 Bad Request)
adrLine2 cannot exceed 35 characters, cannot be provided unless adrLine1 is provided	Request rejected (400 Bad Request)
Cannot use both old format (address1/2/3) and new format (postalAddress) for the same party	Request rejected (400 Bad Request)

Important: You cannot use both the old format (address1/2/3) and the new format (postalAddress) for the same party in a request. Choose one format per party.

Support:

For questions or assistance with this migration, contact your Cross River representative.