MT 300 Explained: Foreign Exchange Confirmation

MT 300 confirms an FX deal — spot, forward, or the two legs of a swap — after two counterparties have agreed terms, typically over the phone, a trading platform, or a broker. It's the formal paper trail that both sides use to check they recorded the same trade, and it drives the settlement instructions each bank sends its own back office.

Key fields

• 20 — Sender's Reference: The sending bank's own deal reference.
• 22A — Type of Operation: Whether this is a new deal, an amendment, or a cancellation of a previously confirmed one.
• 30T / 30V — Trade Date / Value Date: When the deal was struck, and when it settles.
• 32B — Currency, Amount Bought: One side of the currency pair.
• 33B — Currency, Amount Sold: The other side.
• 36 — Exchange Rate: The agreed rate between the two currencies.
• 53a / 57a — Settlement Instructions: Where each currency leg should actually settle, per counterparty.

Because both counterparties independently send their own MT 300, mismatches between the two confirmations — a different rate, amount, or value date — are exactly what treasury back offices reconcile against each other before settlement, catching errors before real money moves.