A new messaging standard for UK payments: ISO 20022

As a consumer I hope that for international funds transfer they push for at LEAST 25 char fields for identity/reference.

HM Customs & Excise need me to send GBP350 every year to my UK national insurance top up (pension) And this requires me to send my NI number which is 9 alpha-digits, combined with my surname which is 10 characters. On the input side, I have a <= 15 char IBAN compatible reference field. That's what Australian funds transfer vehicles (and transferwise) think is the norm.

The UK government even knows this is a truncation problem and advises "put as any letters of your surname in as you can"

I don't know how Armenians, Georgians or Tamil cope! (Their names can be significantly longer)