MT 104 Explained: Direct Debit and Request for Debit Transfer

MT 104 runs in the opposite direction to MT 102 — instead of pushing payments out to beneficiaries, it pulls funds in from debtors under an existing mandate, or requests another bank to do so. It's used for bulk direct-debit collections, such as a utility or insurer collecting premiums from many customers' accounts on a due date.

Key fields

• 20 — Sender's Reference: Reference for the batch.
• 23E — Instruction Code: Processing instructions for how the debit should be handled.
• 30 — Value Date: The date the debit should be applied.
• 21 — Transaction Reference (repeated): One per individual debit within the batch.
• 21C / 21D — Mandate References: Ties each debit back to the underlying mandate the debtor signed, since a direct debit can't be pulled without one.
• 32B — Amount (repeated): The amount to be collected from each debtor.
• 50a — Creditor: Who's collecting the funds (repeated as the constant party across the batch).
• 59a — Debtor (repeated): Whose account is being debited — one per transaction.

Because a direct debit moves money without the debtor initiating it, the mandate reference (21C/21D) is what makes the whole thing legitimate — a debtor's bank will refuse or reverse a debit it can't tie to an authorised mandate.