SWIFT message types

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. This was later supplemented by a XML based version under ISO 20022.

Composition of MT number

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". This is followed by a three-digit number that denotes the message category, group and type. Consider the following two examples.
Example 1
MT304

The first digit represents the category. A category denotes messages that relate to particular financial instruments or services such as precious metals, treasury, or traveller's cheques. The category denoted by 3 is treasury markets
The second digit represents a group of related parts in a transaction life cycle. The group indicated by 0 is a financial institution transfer.
The third digit is the type that denotes the specific message. There are several hundred message types across the categories. The type represented by 4 is a notification.

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. 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
MT103

The first digit represents the category. The category denoted by 1 is customer payments and cheques.
The second digit represents a group of related parts in a transaction life cycle. The group indicated by 0 is a financial institution transfer.
The third digit is the type that denotes the specific message. There are several hundred message types across the categories. The type represented by 3 is a notification.

A MT103 message is considered a "Single Customer Credit Transfer" and is used to instruct a funds transfer.

Overview of SWIFT MT categories

The table below shows the different categories and the message type descriptions.

Category	Message type	Description	Number of message types
0	MT0	System messages	-
1	MT1	Customer payments and cheques	19
2	MT2	Financial institution transfers	18
3	MT3	Treasury markets	27
4	MT4	Collection and cash letters	17
5	MT5	Securities Markets	60
6	MT6	Treasury markets – metals and syndications	22
7	MT7	Documentary credits and guarantees	29
8	MT8	Traveller's cheques	11
9	MT9	Cash management and customer status	21

ISO 15022 MT

Although ISO 15022 message types are different in their structure from the SWIFT MT, the naming convention remains the same.

Legal status

The Courts in England and Wales have held that the header of a SWIFT message amounts to a valid form of electronic signature.