MT 103 Explained: Every Field in a SWIFT Customer Credit Transfer

MT 103 is the SWIFT message banks use to send a single cross-border customer payment — the message that actually moves money from a remitter's bank to a beneficiary's bank in an international wire transfer. Where MT 700 opens a Letter of Credit, MT 103 executes a payment — the two are often confused because both are SWIFT "MT" messages, but they do fundamentally different jobs. This is a field-by-field reference to what's inside one.

Reference and operation type

• 20 — Sender's Reference: The sending bank's own unique reference for this payment. Every bank in the chain, and the customer's own bank statement, will usually quote this number when tracing the transfer.
• 13C — Time Indication: An optional timestamp (e.g. cut-off time, execution time) tied to a specific code, mainly used for time-critical same-day payments.
• 23B — Bank Operation Code: Almost always CRED (a normal credit transfer). Other codes like SPRI (priority) or SSTD (standard) exist but are rare in customer payments.
• 23E — Instruction Code: Optional processing instructions between banks — SDVA (same-day value), INTC (intra-company payment), PHOB (advise beneficiary by phone), and similar codes.
• 26T — Transaction Type Code: A code classifying the underlying nature of the transaction, used in some jurisdictions for statistical/regulatory reporting.

Value date, amount, and exchange rate

• 32A — Value Date / Currency / Interbank Settled Amount: The single most important field — the date value is exchanged between the banks, the settlement currency, and the amount actually settled between the sender and receiver (which can differ from what the customer instructed, once charges and FX are applied).
• 33B — Currency / Instructed Amount: The original amount and currency the ordering customer actually asked to be sent, before any currency conversion or deduction of charges.
• 36 — Exchange Rate: Present only when 32A's currency differs from 33B's — the rate used to convert between the two.

Ordering customer and instructing institutions

• 50a — Ordering Customer (50A / 50F / 50K): The remitter — the individual or company sending the money. Includes name, address, and account number; 50F adds structured identification (date of birth, place, ID number) required by several countries' payment-transparency rules.
• 51A — Sending Institution: Used only in certain message environments where the SWIFT sender isn't itself the account-servicing bank.
• 52a — Ordering Institution (52A / 52D): The remitter's own bank, when it's different from the bank actually transmitting the MT 103 (common when a smaller bank routes payments through a larger correspondent).

The correspondent banking chain

• 53a — Sender's Correspondent: The bank the sending bank uses to reimburse itself in the settlement currency, if it doesn't hold a direct account relationship with the receiver.
• 54a — Receiver's Correspondent: The bank the receiving bank will be reimbursed through, for the same reason on the receiving side.
• 55a — Third Reimbursement Institution: A further reimbursement leg, used in longer correspondent chains.
• 56a — Intermediary Institution: A bank the payment must pass through between the sender and the account-with institution — typically appears when the beneficiary's bank has no direct relationship with the sender's bank or correspondent.
• 57a — Account With Institution: The beneficiary's own bank — where the beneficiary's account named in field 59 is actually held.

These routing fields are why a wire can take longer, and cost more, than the sender expects — each additional correspondent leg (53a → 55a → 56a) adds a bank that may deduct its own handling charge before passing the payment on, unless charges are explicitly instructed otherwise (see 71A below).

Beneficiary and remittance details

• 59a — Beneficiary Customer (59 / 59A / 59F): The recipient — name, address, and account number (or IBAN, where applicable). Mismatches here are one of the most common reasons a payment gets held for manual repair at an intermediary bank.
• 70 — Remittance Information: Free-text describing what the payment is for — an invoice number, a contract reference, or similar. For inward remittances into India, this field is also where the RBI/FEMA purpose code is typically carried, since Indian banks need it to classify the transaction under FEMA before crediting the account.

Charges and sender-to-receiver information

• 71A — Details of Charges: Mandatory — OUR (the sender pays all charges, beneficiary receives the full instructed amount), SHA (shared — each bank deducts its own fee), or BEN (the beneficiary bears all charges, deducted from the amount received). This single code is why the same instructed amount can arrive as three different credited amounts depending on what was selected.
• 71F — Sender's Charges and 71G — Receiver's Charges: Present when charges have already been deducted along the way, so the next bank in the chain knows exactly how much has been taken out and by whom.
• 72 — Sender to Receiver Information: Free-text bank-to-bank instructions not meant for the beneficiary — special handling notes, or references to a linked message.
• 77B — Regulatory Reporting: Structured or free-text information some countries require for cross-border payment reporting (for example, exchange control declarations).

Not every field is present on every MT 103 — the correspondent-chain fields (53a–56a) only appear when a direct account relationship doesn't exist, and 36 only appears when currencies are converted mid-transfer. But 20, 23B, 32A, 50a, 59a, and 71A are effectively always present, since together they identify the payment, its value, who's sending, who's receiving, and who pays the fees.