SWIFT message

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SWIFT messages are of the S ociety for W orldwide I nterbank F inancial T elecommunication (short SWIFT ) standardized data formats for the exchange of messages between banks , stock exchanges , securities -Lagerstellen, other financial institutions and large companies in other industries. So far, the message types (MT for short) of the SWIFT FIN ( Financial Messaging ) application have been used almost exclusively , which are expanded with annual releases and adapted to new requirements. The standard is also used in other networks (e.g. Eurogiro).

In Germany, some SWIFT message types are part of the standard for electronic payments ( DFÜ agreement , FTAM , EBICS , HBCI , FinTS ) established by the ZKA (now DK ), in particular for account statements (MT940).

The conversion of MT message formats to XML- based definitions (MX messages) according to the ISO 20022 standard began in 2007 . However, the SEPA messages used since January 28, 2008 do not belong to the MX messages because the European Payments Committee (EPC) is responsible for the message definitions in the ISO 20022 standard and not SWIFT. The SEPA messages are used for intra-European transfers (in euros) to exchange messages - also independently of SWIFT - between customers, banks and clearing systems.

General structure of SWIFT messages

The SWIFT-FIN messages only contain characters in a restricted ASCII character set. They are divided into 5 blocks, each enclosed in curly brackets:

  1. Basic header block
  2. Application header block
  3. User header block
  4. Content block
  5. Trailer block

In the SWIFT network, the MT messages always have a three-digit number as a type designation. Well-known examples are:

  • MT101 - Standard message for commissioning a transfer from customer to bank
  • MT103 - Standard message for customer transfers from bank to customer
  • MT104 - Standard message for direct debits
  • MT200 - standard message for bank-to-bank payments, e.g. B. a bank transfer for your own account
  • MT202 - Standard message for bank-to-bank payments
  • MT502 - Standard message for a buy / sell order
  • MT535 - Standard message for a securities account statement
  • MT940 - standardized structure for account statements
  • MT941 - account balance (current)
  • MT942 - account turnover (current)
  • MT999 - free text

News Categories - message types (MT)

The first digit in the message type determines one of the following nine message categories:

Message Type description
MT0 xx System message
MT1 xx Customer payments
MT2 xx Transfers between credit institutions
MT3 xx Foreign exchange and money trading
MT4 xx Collections and letters of credit
MT5 xx Securities
MT6 xx Precious metals and syndicated deals
MT7 xx Documentary letters of credit and guarantees
MT8 xx Travelers checks
MT9 xx Cash management and customer information

Individual SWIFT messages

MT101

The SWIFT message MT101 is used to issue the payment order debited to a customer account with another bank .

In general, it is used in those cases in which the customer has no possibility of communicating directly with the bank holding the account or in cases in which the parent company has the account balances of a subsidiary , its accounts with a geographically / functionally inaccessible bank be guided.

Code sample

The data fields each begin in a new line with a tag enclosed in colons , which begins with two digits, possibly followed by a letter for a variant of the field meaning. 

:20:MT101-Test
:28D:00001/00001
:30:040403
:21:Start B-Seq
:32B:EUR1,
:23E:CMTO
:50G:/Kontonummer
BANKDEM0XXX
:59A:/Kontonummer
BANKDEM0XXX
:71A:SHA

MT103

The MT103 is the standard data record in the SWIFT network for customer payments. The MT202, on the other hand, is reserved for bank-to-bank payments.

The MT103 replaced the outdated MT100. Since 18 November 2000, all have SWIFT participants type messages MT103 can assume from November 15, 2003, no messages can type MT100 from being sent.

The MT103 contains all the data needed to make payments to each recipient within the SWIFT network.

There are two message formats derived from the MT103 message format for which additional conditions apply:

  • MT103 +:
    • This message is mainly used for transfers within the EU . The specification of the international bank account number (IBAN) and BIC is mandatory in such messages.
    • Any valid MT103 + message is also a valid MT103 message.
  • MT103 REMIT

For the detailed structure, please see under web links.

MT202

With this data set, the banks can make bilateral transfers to one another . This money transfer is only used among the banks themselves. This form of money transfer is therefore ruled out for end customers.

MT5 xx

Since there are different filling options, the participants founded a so-called Securities Market Practice Group (SMPG) in 1998, which defines uniform market practices. This is intended to standardize the business processes in securities processing in order to increase the degree of automation.

ISO 20022 MX

SWIFT standards for MX messages:

MX identifier Description
acmt. xxx.xxx.xx Account management
admi. xxx.xxx.xx administration
camt. xxx.xxx.xx Cash management
defp. xxx.xxx.xx Derivatives
pacs. xxx.xxx.xx Payments Clearing and Settlement
pain. xxx.xxx.xx Payments Initiation
reda. xxx.xxx.xx Reference data
seev. xxx.xxx.xx Securities events
semt. xxx.xxx.xx Securities Management
sese. xxx.xxx.xx Securities Settlement
setr. xxx.xxx.xx Securities Trade
trea. xxx.xxx.xx Treasury
tsmt. xxx.xxx.xx Trade Services Management

Web links