MT103: Fields, Fees, and How to Request One

An MT103 is the standardized SWIFT message a bank issues to confirm it has sent a cross-border wire transfer, and the document you receive acts as a receipt showing the payment left your account and entered the SWIFT network on behalf of a specific beneficiary. Both you and your recipient can use it as proof of payment and as a reference to trace the funds through every bank that handles them.

As of November 22, 2025, SWIFT requires cross-border payment instructions to use the newer ISO 20022 format, but banks still produce confirmations labeled MT103 and the data inside them has not changed in any way that affects you as a customer.¹

What’s Inside an MT103

An MT103 is built from numbered fields, each carrying one piece of transaction data. A handful of them matter when you’re reading your own confirmation or sending it to someone else.

Field 20 — Sender’s reference. A unique code the originating bank assigns to the transfer. Quote this string when you call your bank about the payment; it’s how they locate the transaction internally.²

Field 32A — Value date, currency, amount. One line combining the date funds are scheduled to become available at the receiving bank, a three-letter currency code, and the interbank settled amount. That amount is what moves between banks before any separate fee your own bank may charge you.³

Field 50 — Ordering customer. The sender’s name and address, used by the receiving bank for anti-money laundering checks. Errors or missing data in this field can cause the receiving bank to hold or reject the transfer.⁴

Field 59 — Beneficiary customer. The recipient’s name and account number. SWIFT’s own guidelines say beneficiary details should appear only here and not be scattered across other parts of the message.⁴

Field 70 — Remittance information. A short description of what the payment is for, usually an invoice or contract reference so the recipient can match the incoming funds to the right account. The traditional MT103 limits the space available here, which has long frustrated companies reconciling high payment volumes.²

Field 71A — Fee allocation. This one deserves its own section because the wrong code is a common cause of payment disputes.

Who Pays the Fees: SHA, OUR, BEN

Field 71A tells every bank in the payment chain who absorbs the transfer charges. Three codes are possible:

SHA (shared). The sender pays their own bank’s fees. The recipient pays any intermediary or receiving-bank fees. This is the most common arrangement for commercial payments.
OUR. The sender covers every fee across the entire chain. The recipient receives the full amount with nothing deducted.
BEN (beneficiary). The recipient absorbs all fees. The payment arrives with charges already taken out.

If you’re paying an invoice and the contract requires the supplier to receive the full amount, selecting SHA instead of OUR means the supplier will come up short and will tell you about it.

How to Get Your MT103 and What It’s Good For

Once your bank sends the wire, the MT103 is your proof that the payment left your account. Most online banking portals let you download it from the transaction history, often labeled “payment advice” or “SWIFT confirmation.” If it isn’t available online, call your bank’s wire department or visit a branch and request a PDF or printed copy. Ask for it as soon as the bank confirms transmission.

Sharing the MT103 with the recipient is standard practice in international real estate deals, trade transactions, and any arrangement where the other side needs to see that the money is in motion before shipping goods or releasing documents. It gives the recipient enough detail to follow up with their own bank if the funds don’t arrive on time.

Tracking a Transfer With the UETR

Every MT103 includes a Unique End-to-End Transaction Reference, a 36-character string that lets both parties track the payment across the entire SWIFT network.⁵ The UETR travels with the payment through every bank in the chain, so if funds appear stuck, this is the single most useful piece of information for tracing them. When you contact your bank about a delayed transfer, lead with the UETR rather than the amount or date. It gives investigators a direct line to where the payment currently sits.

How Long an International Wire Takes

International wire transfers typically take one to five business days to reach the recipient’s account, though roughly 75% of payments on the SWIFT network now reach the destination bank within 10 minutes.⁶ The bottleneck is usually the “last mile,” the gap between when the payment arrives at the beneficiary’s bank and when that bank actually credits the recipient’s account. That final step accounts for most of the delay in a typical transfer.⁷

When a wire does stall, the cause usually falls into one of a few categories:

Compliance screening. Anti-money laundering and sanctions checks can hold a payment for hours or days, particularly for large amounts, transfers involving certain countries, or transactions where parties share names with sanctioned individuals.
Incorrect details. A wrong digit in the account number or SWIFT code forces the receiving bank to request clarification, adding days as messages bounce back and forth.
Bank cutoff times and holidays. A transfer initiated after your bank’s daily cutoff won’t go out until the next business day, and weekends or banking holidays in either country extend the timeline.
Intermediary bank processing. If your bank doesn’t have a direct relationship with the receiving bank, the payment routes through one or more intermediaries. Each one adds its own processing window, fees, and compliance review.
Currency conversion. Transfers requiring foreign exchange add a step beyond the message routing itself.

How to Spot a Forged MT103

Fraudsters regularly use fabricated MT103 documents to convince victims that money has been sent when it hasn’t. These scams target businesses in international trade, real estate, and high-value goods sales. If someone sends you an MT103 as “proof of payment” but your bank has no record of an incoming transfer, treat it as a fraud indicator until proven otherwise.

Red flags worth memorizing:

“Conditional” MT103. There is no such thing. Scammers claim a transfer has been sent but is “held” pending documents or conditions. SWIFT messages don’t work that way. Any conditions typed into the message text are meaningless to the banking system and the receiving bank ignores them.
“Manual download” language. Phrases like “MT103/202 manual download,” “server-to-server transfer,” or “key-tested telex” are fabricated jargon that doesn’t exist in legitimate banking. If you see these terms, you’re looking at a scam.
Upfront fee demands. Claims that a transfer is on a “compliance hold” and the recipient needs to pay “clearance fees” or “taxes” to release the funds. Banks do not require recipients to pay fees to release incoming wires.
Refusal to involve banks directly. Legitimate senders will let their bank confirm a transfer through official channels. Fraudsters make excuses about “confidentiality” or “workload” when asked for direct banker-to-banker verification.

The simplest defense: never rely on a document the sender provides as the proof itself. Check with your own bank. If they have no record of an incoming SWIFT message, the payment doesn’t exist, regardless of how official the PDF looks.

What the ISO 20022 Transition Means for You

Since November 22, 2025, SWIFT has required cross-border payment instructions to use ISO 20022.¹ The replacement message is called pacs.008 and carries the same core data as the MT103 — sender, recipient, amount, currency, value date — in a more structured XML format.

Banks that haven’t fully migrated can still submit messages in the legacy MT format, and SWIFT converts them to ISO 20022 before delivery. That conversion service comes with additional charges that took effect in January 2026, giving banks a financial reason to finish their migration.⁸

For you as a customer, the practical differences are modest. Your bank still collects the same information to send a wire, and you still get a confirmation document. The improvements sit behind the scenes: structured address data instead of free-text fields, support for more special characters, dedicated space for regulatory reporting, and significantly more room for remittance details.⁹ Over time, those changes should mean fewer errors from truncated data, faster compliance screening, and better end-to-end tracking. If your bank still provides confirmations labeled “MT103,” it likely means they’re using the conversion service while finishing their transition.

What Your Bank Needs From You to Send One

When you request an international wire, your bank collects specific data to build the message. Getting any of it wrong can delay the transfer by days or send the funds bouncing back, and most banks charge a fee for amendments once the message has been sent.

Beneficiary’s full legal name. Must match exactly what the receiving bank has on file. Even “John A. Smith” versus “John Smith” can trigger a manual review.
Account number or IBAN. An International Bank Account Number is required for transfers to most countries outside the United States. For U.S. domestic accounts, a standard account number and ABA routing number are used instead.
Receiving bank’s SWIFT/BIC code. This eight- or eleven-character code identifies the exact institution and branch where the money needs to land.
Intermediary bank details. Required when your bank doesn’t have a direct relationship with the receiving bank. Your recipient will usually tell you what to use.
Fee code (SHA, OUR, or BEN). Choose deliberately based on who the contract says should bear the charges.

Confirm each item in writing with the recipient before you send. A correct MT103 saves everyone the time, fees, and anxiety of chasing a payment that went to the wrong place or arrived short.