Recommendation 16 addresses the information that accompanies payments so authorities and financial institutions can trace their origin and destination. It assigns responsibilities to ordering, intermediary and beneficiary institutions for obtaining, transmitting, preserving and responding to missing payment information. The aim is transparency through the payment chain rather than simply adding fields to a message.

The framework differentiates transaction circumstances and recognises the roles of different intermediaries. Operational controls need to preserve information through format changes and cross-border hand-offs and identify transfers with incomplete or unreliable data. Payment messaging standards support those controls, but technical message validity alone does not establish compliance.

FATF adopted revisions to the standard in 2025 with an implementation transition. The version and national implementation date therefore matter when comparing current obligations with the revised target framework. Institutions should distinguish an internationally agreed standard from the point at which its detailed requirements become binding in a particular jurisdiction.