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SWIFT Payments and Reporting

SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) is an international, electronic communication network used by banks and corporations to exchange standardized financial messages throughout the world. The SWIFT format is the universal standardized format that has been developed for this purpose. It has 10 message categories and uses a fixed format with set codes to maintain data accuracy.

This document details the format and implementation of SWIFT messages generated by GS Bank.

Message Building Blocks

The message consists of up to 5 blocks as described below:

Basic Header

The group header consists of identification of the file as well as information that is common to all the individual transactions in the file and some additional control information. This block is mandatory and present only once.

Mandatory(M)/
Optional(O)
Field NameMax LengthSample UsageRemarks
MAppID1AFIdentifies application within which the message is being sent or received. Possible Options :F, O or L
MService ID2N01Identifies the type of message, FIN: 01 or ACK/NAK: 21
MLTAddress12XBICXXX99XBRCSenders address for output messages consisting of BIC
MSession Number4N0000Identifies the session in which message was transmitted
MSequence Number6N012359Receiver’s current output session

Sample : {1: F01BICXXX99XBRC0000012359}

Application Header

Information about message type, sender and when it was delivered

Mandatory(M)/
Optional(O)
Field NameMax LengthSample UsageRemarks
MInput/Output ID1AIPossible options O or I
MMessage Type3N940Identifies the message type
MInput Time local to sender of message4N0546The hour and minute on which sender sent the Swift Message, HHMM format
MMessage Reference28X200507BANKFR99AXXX0000000000Consist of input date local to receiver(6N), Receiver’s Swift Address(12X), session number(4N) and sequence number(6N)
MOutput Date6N200507Date on which message is delivered to receiver, YYMMDD
MOutput Time4N0546Time in HHMM, local to receiver, when message is delivered to receiver
MMessage Priority1XNAlways N

Sample: {2: I9400546200507BANKFR99AXXX00000000002005070546N}

User Header

An optional field that consists of processing instructions. This section is not currently used by GS Bank.

Text Block

It represents the actual data to transfer. Tags within this section are described further in block composition section.

Trailer Block

This relates to message handling or security information consisting of non-mandatory fields except the checksum. Sample: 5: {CHK:123456789123}

SWIFT Acknowledgements

The message consists of 2 blocks the {1:} basic header block and {4:} Text block as described below:

The Basic Header

The block is same as described earlier with Service ID now populated with value 21 signifying it’s for Acknowledgement/Negative Acknowledgement Sample: {1: F21BICXXX99XBRC0000012359}

The Text block

Most important information from this block beginning with {4:} is the sub field {451:} indicating whether the message is successfully accepted or not

Mandatory(M)/Optional(O)Field NameSample UsageRemarks
M{177:{177:2008241640}Local date and time of submitting user on the SWIFT Network
M{451:{451:0}Accept/Reject Tag, if message is accepted populated with 0, if message is rejected populated with 1
O{405:{405:M60}If the message is rejected this field will be populated with SWIFT reject reason error code (see appendix)
M{108:{108: TRN0000123456789}This is the sent reference in the outbound message

Sample SWIFT Ack: {1: F21BICXXX99XBRC0000012359} {4: {177:2008241640} {451:0} {108: TRN0000123456789}}

Sample SWIFT Nack: {1: F21BICXXX99XBRC0000012359} {4: {177:2008241640} {451:1} {405:M60} {108: TRN0000123456789}}

Appendix

Permitted character set in SWIFT messages

  • Alphabets [A-Z; a-z]
  • Numerals [0-9]
  • Characters: space ( ), period (.),open parenthesis ( and close parenthesis ), hyphen (-), slash (/), less than (<) plus (+), ampersand (&), dollar sign ($), asterisk (*), semi-colon (;), percent sign (%), at sign (@), equal sign (=), double quote (“), and back-slash (\).

Legend Table - Data Types

ValueDescription
NNumeric, Digits 0-9
BAmount, used to display amount in account with ',' compulsorily
AAlphabetic, letters A-Z
XAlphanumeric, contains digits, letter and supported characters

SWIFT Error Codes

ValueDescription
M60Non-SWIFT character encountered
T32An expected subfield, component, or component separator was not found.
T54The format of the first line of Field 50F (Party Identifier) is invalid. This check applies to: Field 50F in MT 101
T50Date error. Either Invalid Date subfield (this check applies to all MTs with a Date subfield) OR Invalid year in a Value Date subfield of the MTs that are candidate for the Value Date Ordering process. The valid range is:00-60 for the years 2000-2060, 80-99 for the years 1980-1999
Field 30 in MT 101

SWIFT Transaction Codes

Transaction Type Identification CodesDescription
FCHGCharges and other expenses
FCMSCash management item - Sweeping
FINTInterest
FODCOverdraft charge
FRTIReturned item
NCHKCheques
NCMICash management item - No detail
NCMSCash management item - Sweeping
NDDTDirect Debit Item
NRTIOutgoing wire return
NTRFTransfer

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