SWIFT MT103 Form – the standard payment confirmation form in cross-border SWIFT transactions, also known as a "Single Customer Credit Transfer." If you have sent a SWIFT transfer and the receiver has not received it within 3 business days, the first thing you should do as the sender is ask your bank for this form. Banks may sometimes refer to it by different names, such as "transfer details", "transfer receipt", or “payment confirmation”. In this article we will go through examples of MT103 forms from different banks.
What is SWIFT MT103 Form?
It is a detailed document generated when you complete an international SWIFT transfer at your bank. It serves as a confirmation of the payment made from your bank and informs the beneficiary's bank of all the transaction details, including any fees applied. At least, it is supposed to inform the beneficiary's bank, though sometimes it can get stuck in intermediary banks.
The MT103 is a somewhat old-fashioned document structure, created in the days when COBOL programming language reigned supreme. Now, SWIFT promises to replace it with a modern, XML-based structure using the ISO 20022 format. However, for now, we mostly see the traditional MT103 in use.
How Does MT103 Form Look Like?
The MT103 can be provided on the bank's official template with a logo, but sometimes it may look like a TXT file extract from SWIFT systems. This doesn't really matter. What’s important is understanding the meaning of the fields.
Here, in the example, you can see a SWIFT transfer from the Montenegrin bank Hipotekarna. They automatically email this form when the payment has been processed.
First, look at the right side – the receiver of this form is RZBAATWWXXX. While you might assume this is the beneficiary's bank, that’s not entirely true. This is the correspondent bank for EUR transfers on behalf of Hipotekarna. It’s not a general rule, but very often, the correspondent bank appears in the header, and this information can be quite useful.
In the User Header section, you can see the field :121: with the UETR code. It’s not mandatory to have it on the MT103 form, but you’re lucky if it’s included. It always follows the same format: XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX.
The UETR code is the only universal identifier for each SWIFT transaction. It’s universal because it doesn’t change throughout the entire transaction process, and if you ask any bank in the chain where it is, theoretically, they can track it.
In field 20, you’ll find the Transaction Reference Number, often called the Sender's Reference Number. Each bank in the chain assigns its own reference number. While the UETR code is more universal, sometimes it’s enough to have the Sender's Reference Number to track the payment. It’s also more convenient when contacting the bank.
In the field 32A you can see the amount, currency and the date of the transaction. Please make sure you read the date correctly, usually it is formatted as YYMMDD. So in this example 5220 euros have been sent on 2nd of November 2022. When you speak with the bank's representative they usually refer to this data as:
- Value Amount or Sender's Amount
- Value Date
- Sender's Currency
On the second page of the form, we see the details about the sender and the beneficiary of the payment:
In field 50K, you can see the sender's details, including their account number, name, and address. In field 57A, you can see the beneficiary's bank SWIFT/BIC code.
Other MT103 Examples
Here is another example of an MT103 form from an Italian bank. From the header, we can see that it was sent to Deutsche Bank, where the bank maintains its correspondent (nostro) account. In field 121 of the header, you can see the UETR code. In the body of the form, there is a reference number, value date (26th of June 2024), amount – 100,100.80 EUR, and the sender's name, address, and account number. In field 56A, you'll find the correspondent bank of the receiving bank. In field 57A, you'll find the beneficiary's bank. Field 70 contains the payment details. "SHA" in field 71A means that the fees for the transfer are shared between the sender and the beneficiary.
Why Do You Need SWIFT MT103 Form?
If you have sent a SWIFT transfer and it hasn't been credited to the beneficiary within the usual time frame, such as 3 business days, you need to take action, especially if you're in a hurry. One of the first steps you can take is to ask the beneficiary to go to their bank and inquire if they can see the transaction. However, it might be difficult for the bank to identify it without specific details. Providing them with the MT103 form will make their job much easier.
You can also try to track SWIFT payment and you will need data from MT103 form like UETR code or payment reference, date, amount, currency. Most probably you won't see the exact bank where transfer is at this moment, however you can check if it was rejected or not, and also check if there any update was since last time you've checked.