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Category 2 Message Types

The following table lists all message types defined in category 2.

For each message type, there is a short description, an indicator whether the message type is signed (Y/N), the maximum message length on input (2,000 or 10,000 characters), whether the use of the message requires registration with SWIFT for use in a message user group (Y/N) and whether value date ordering (VDO) can be requested for the message (Y/N). Value date ordering criteria are described in the Standards MT General Information.

MT MT Name Purpose Signed  (1)  Max. Length MUG VDO
200 Financial Institution Transfer for its Own Account Requests the movement of the Sender's funds to its account at another financial institution Y 2,000 N Y
201 Multiple Financial Institution Transfer for its Own Account Multiple of the MT 200 Y 2,000 N Y
202 General Financial Institution Transfer Requests the movement of funds between financial institutions, except if the transfer is related to an underlying customer credit transfer that was sent with the cover method, in which case the MT 202 COV must be used. Y 10,000 N Y
202 COV General Financial Institution Transfer Requests the movement of funds between financial institutions, related to an underlying customer credit transfer that was sent with the cover method. Y 10,000 N Y
203 Multiple General Financial Institution Transfer Multiple of the MT 202 Y 2,000 N Y
204 Financial Markets Direct Debit Message Claims funds from SWIFT member banks Y 2,000 Y Y
205 Financial Institution Transfer Execution Further transmits a transfer request domestically, except if the transfer is related to an underlying customer credit transfer that was sent with the cover method, in which case the MT 205 COV must be used. Y 10,000 N Y
205 COV Financial Institution Transfer Execution Further transmits a transfer request domestically, related to an underlying customer credit transfer that was sent with the cover method. Y 10,000 N Y
207 Request for Financial Institution Transfer Requests to debit an ordering financial institution's account held at the receiving financial institution or the account servicing financial institution Y 10,000 Y Y
210 Notice to Receive Notifies the Receiver that it will receive funds for the Sender's account Y 2,000 N Y
256 Advice of Non-Payment of Cheques Informs the Sender of one or more previously sent cheque truncation messages of non-payment of one or more truncated cheques. It may also be used to specify dishonoured items that result in reversing a previous payment settlement Y 10,000 Y Y
290 Advice of Charges, Interest and Other Adjustments Advises an account owner of charges, interest or other adjustments Y 2,000 N N
291 Request for Payment of Charges, Interest and Other Expenses Requests payment of charges, interest or other expenses Y 2,000 N N
292 Request for Cancellation Requests the Receiver to consider cancellation of the message identified in the request Y 2,000 N N
295 Queries Requests information relating to a previous message or amendment to a previous message Y 2,000 N N
296 Answers Responds to an MT 295 Queries message or an MT 292 Request for Cancellation or other message where no specific message type has been provided for a response Y 2,000 N N
298 Proprietary Message Contains formats defined and agreed to between users and for those messages not yet live Y 10,000 N N
299 Free Format Message Contains information for which no other message type has been defined Y 2,000 N N

(1)  A Relationship Management Application (RMA) authorisation is required in order to sign a message.

Note: 

A Message User Group (MUG), for the purposes of this book, is a group of users who have voluntarily agreed to support the specified message type and have registered with SWIFT to send or receive the specified message type. These messages are indicated in the preceding table in the column MUG.

Registration is free of charge. To register to use one or more message types, submit a registration request (Register to a Message User Group) through the forms available on www.swift.com > Ordering > Order products and services.

To withdraw from a MUG, use the Deregister from a Message User Group request. These forms are available at www.swift.com > Ordering > Terminate and deactivate.

To get the list of other members of a particular MUG, send an MT 999 to the Customer Implementation team (SWHQBEBBCOS).