The MT 256 can only be sent or received by financial institutions which have registered with SWIFT to send or receive the MT 206/MT 256. If a registered user receives an MT 256 without bilateral agreement with the Sender, the Receiver should query the message according to normal banking practice.
This message must not be used to specify reasons that at a later stage could lead to a non-payment, eg, a request for a photocopy to check the signature. For this, an MT 295 Queries must be used, for which special codes are provided.
For dishonoured cheques in different currencies, different MT 256s must be used.
When the Sender does not have authority to debit the Receiver's account, the Receiver of the MT 256 must credit the account according to the specified value date.
Field 30 may only be used if the original value date differs from the value date provided in this field. Absence of field 30 implies that the value date in field 32A is taken from the original MT 206.