SWIFT message types are the format or schema used to send messages to financial institutions on the

SWIFT Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to: * SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks ** SWIFT code * Swift (programming language) * Swift (bird), a family of birds It may also refer to: Organizations * SWIF ...

network. The original message types were developed by SWIFT and a subset was retrospectively made into an

ISO standard The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ; ; ) is an independent, non-governmental, international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Me ...

ISO 15022 ISO 15022 is an ISO standard for securities messaging used in transactions between financial institutions. Participants in the financial industry need a common representation of the financial transactions they perform and this standard defines gen ...

. In many instances, SWIFT message types between custodians follow the ISO standard. This was later supplemented by a

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based version under

ISO 20022 ISO 20022 is an ISO standard for electronic data interchange between financial institutions. It describes a metadata repository containing descriptions of messages and business processes, and a maintenance process for the repository content. T ...

Composition of MT number

SWIFT messages consist of five blocks of data including three headers, message content, and a trailer. Message types are crucial to identifying content. All SWIFT messages include the literal "MT" (message type/text). This is followed by a three-digit number that denotes the message ''category'', ''group'' and ''type''. Consider the following two examples. Example 1 MT304 * The first digit (3) represents the category. A category denotes messages that relate to particular financial instruments or services such as precious metals (6), treasury (3), or traveller's cheques (8). The category denoted by 3 is treasury markets * The second digit (0) represents a group of related parts in a transaction life cycle. The group indicated by 0 is a financial institution transfer. * The third digit (4) is the type that denotes the specific message. There are several hundred message types across the categories. The type represented by 4 is a notification. A MT304 message is considered an "Advice/Instruction of a Third Party Deal" and it used to advise of or instruct the settlement of a third party foreign exchange deal. For example, an asset manager who executed a FX transaction with a broker would send a MT304 instruction to the custodian bank of the client. Example 2

MT103 Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to: * SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks ** SWIFT code * Swift (programming language) * Swift (bird), a family of birds It may also refer to: Organizations * SWIFT, a ...

* The first digit (1) represents the category. The category denoted by 1 is customer payments and cheques. * The second digit (0) represents a group of related parts in a transaction life cycle. The group indicated by 0 is a financial institution transfer. * The third digit (3) is the type that denotes the specific message. There are several hundred message types across the categories. The type represented by 3 is a notification. A MT103 message is considered a "Single Customer Credit Transfer" and is used to instruct a funds transfer.

Overview of SWIFT MT categories

The table below shows the different categories and the message type descriptions.

ISO 15022 MT

Although

message types are different in their structure from the SWIFT MT, the naming convention remains the same.

Legal status

The Courts in England and Wales have held that the header of a SWIFT message amounts to a valid form of

electronic signature An electronic signature, or e-signature, is data that is logically associated with other data and which is used by the signatory to sign the associated data. This type of signature has the same legal standing as a handwritten signature as long as ...

.Gill, C.
Law Commission report on electronic signatures
''Walker Morris'', published on 26 September 2019, accessed on 18 June 2025

External links

* Message standards supported by the SWIFT network: * Message types defined in ISO15022

References