If the Sender and the Receiver wish to use their direct account relationship in the currency of the transfer, then the MT 103 message will contain the cover for the customer transfer as well as the payment details.
If the Sender and the Receiver have no direct account relationship in the currency of the transfer or do not wish to use their account relationship, then third banks will be involved to cover the transaction. The MT 103 contains only the payment details and the Sender must cover the customer transfer by sending an MT 202 General Financial Institution Transfer to a third bank. This payment method is called 'cover'.
Where more than two financial institutions are involved in the payment chain, and if the MT 103 is sent from one financial institution to the next financial institution in this chain, then the payment method is called 'serial'.
If the Receiver does not service an account for the beneficiary customer, and no account servicing institution is indicated, nor any alternative instructions given, then the Receiver will act upon the customer credit transfer instruction in an appropriate manner of its choice.
In order to allow better reconciliation by the beneficiary customer, the MT 103 supports full charges transparency and structured remittance information.
In order to allow better reconciliation by the Receiver, the MT 103 gives an unambiguous indication of the interbank amount booked by the Sender/to be booked by the Receiver.
The MT 103 gives the Sender the ability to identify in the message the level of service requested, ie, what service is expected from the Receiver for a particular payment, eg, SWIFTPay, Standard or Priority or any other bilaterally agreed service.
The message also allows for the inclusion of regulatory information in countries where regulatory reporting is requested.