SWIFT message types are the format or schema used to send messages to financial institutions on the SWIFT network. The original message types were developed by SWIFT and a subset was retrospectively made into an ISO standard, ISO 15022. In many instances, SWIFT message types between custodians follow the ISO standard.[1] This was later supplemented by a XML based version under ISO 20022.
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[2]). This is followed by a three-digit number that denotes the message category, group and type. Consider the following two examples.
Example 1
MT304
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. [3] 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
A MT103 message is considered a "Single Customer Credit Transfer" and is used to instruct a funds transfer.[4]
The table below shows the different categories and the message type descriptions.
Category | Message type | Description | Number of message types |
---|---|---|---|
0 | MT0xx | System messages | - |
1 | MT1xx | Customer payments and cheques | 19 |
2 | MT2xx | Financial institution transfers | 18 |
3 | MT3xx | Treasury markets | 27 |
4 | MT4xx | Collection and cash letters | 17 |
5 | MT5xx | Securities Markets | 60 |
6 | MT6xx | Treasury markets – metals and syndications | 22 |
7 | MT7xx | Documentary credits and guarantees | 29 |
8 | MT8xx | Traveller's cheques | 11 |
9 | MT9xx | Cash management and customer status | 21 |
Although ISO 15022 message types are different in their structure than the SWIFT MT, the naming convention remains the same.