SWIFT Messaging: BIC, MT and MX, and ISO 20022

When a firm instructs a cash collateral payment, or shares a UTI for reporting a currency option or similar trade, it may exchange SWIFT messages. Knowing that the message format has moved from MT to a format based on ISO 20022 lets systems staff and operations staff talk from the same starting point.

What SWIFT is

SWIFT (the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) provides a network that carries messages between financial institutions, along with the message formats. It carries messages for payment instructions, securities settlement, and foreign exchange¹. A 2007 source describes it as a cooperative owned by financial institutions and headquartered in Belgium². It also acts as the registration authority that registers and publishes ISO 20022 messages³.

SWIFT is not a bank, holds no accounts or assets for its users, and does not settle funds⁴. The funds move by another route. Between banks with a correspondent banking agreement, the funds move by a transfer between accounts that one bank holds with the other⁵.

gpi (payment tracking)

The gpi (global payment initiative) is a multilateral service-level agreement among payment service providers on the SWIFT network. For payments through correspondent banks, it aims at faster processing, transparent costs, and payment tracking⁶.

Structure of the BIC

The BIC (Business Identifier Code) is an identifier defined by ISO 9362, used to address messages, route transactions, and identify parties. It can be assigned to organizations that are not financial institutions as well⁷. It is made up of 8 or 11 alphanumeric characters⁸.

Consider a hypothetical example in which the BIC "AAAAJPJTXXX" is split into its parts.

An 8-character BIC without the 3-character branch or department part refers to the head office or similar. XXX can be added to an 8-character BIC to write it as 11 characters⁸. The BIC is used mainly to identify financial institutions, and the LEI mainly to identify the parties to a trade in OTC derivatives reporting⁹.

How MT and MX differ

MT is the message format that SWIFT has used for a long time. It assumes that a person checks the content by eye and processes it, and the amount of information it can carry is limited¹⁰. For example, the name, address, city, and country of a beneficiary are written together in a single field (field 59)¹¹.

MX is the format based on ISO 20022¹². ISO 20022 is an international standard that organizes the items and meanings of messages¹³. MX is written in XML and holds structured information, which suits processing by systems¹⁰¹³. Beneficiary information can also be split into structured fields¹¹.

MT and MX correspond message type by message type. The prefixes pain, pacs, and camt are ISO 20022 message areas for payment initiation, payment clearing and settlement, and cash management¹².

Consider a hypothetical example in which Bank K instructs Bank L in the US to move USD 1 million between financial institutions. The beneficiary institution is Bank M in the UK. Bank M does not appear in the figure; it is named in the message as the beneficiary institution. The two samples below write the same instruction as an MT 202 and as an MX (pacs.009).

:20:KB20261102001
:21:REL20261102001
:32A:261104USD1000000,
:52A:AAAAJPJT
:57A:BBBBUS33
:58A:CCCCGB2L

<Document xmlns="urn:iso:std:iso:20022:tech:xsd:pacs.009.001.08">
  <FICdtTrf>
    <GrpHdr>
      <MsgId>MSG-20261102-001</MsgId>
      <CreDtTm>2026-11-02T01:23:45+00:00</CreDtTm>
      <NbOfTxs>1</NbOfTxs>
    </GrpHdr>
    <CdtTrfTxInf>
      <PmtId>
        <InstrId>KB20261102001</InstrId>
        <EndToEndId>REL20261102001</EndToEndId>
      </PmtId>
      <IntrBkSttlmAmt Ccy="USD">1000000.00</IntrBkSttlmAmt>
      <IntrBkSttlmDt>2026-11-04</IntrBkSttlmDt>
      <InstgAgt><FinInstnId><BICFI>AAAAJPJTXXX</BICFI></FinInstnId></InstgAgt>
      <InstdAgt><FinInstnId><BICFI>BBBBUS33XXX</BICFI></FinInstnId></InstdAgt>
      <Dbtr><FinInstnId><BICFI>AAAAJPJTXXX</BICFI></FinInstnId></Dbtr>
      <CdtrAgt><FinInstnId><BICFI>BBBBUS33XXX</BICFI></FinInstnId></CdtrAgt>
      <Cdtr><FinInstnId><BICFI>CCCCGB2LXXX</BICFI></FinInstnId></Cdtr>
    </CdtTrfTxInf>
  </FICdtTrf>
</Document>

Migration to ISO 20022

From March 2023, SWIFT moved the format of cross-border payment messages step by step to one that supports ISO 20022 version 8 (the 2019 version). The period of coexistence with MT was announced to run until November 2025¹⁵.

The main areas covered are customer payments, payments between banks, and cash management¹⁶. MUFG Bank, in a notice as of February 2026, covers cross-border payment messages in this scope. It says that SWIFT abolished the MT format in November 2025 and that the data format used between banks was unified to ISO 20022¹⁶.

The BOJ-NET messages are covered on the Payment Systems: RTGS, BOJ-NET and Correspondent Banking page.

Uses in derivatives

In post-trade work for derivatives, SWIFT messages are used in two situations: instructing collateral payments and sharing UTIs for currency options, NDFs, and NDOs.

Instructing collateral payments

Payments of variation margin and initial margin can be instructed to custodians and collateral agents (tri-party agents) by SWIFT messages. OSTTRA states that its collateral management service (triResolve Margin) can instruct payments to multiple custodians and tri-party agents over SWIFT and confirm their execution status. It also states that it supports SWIFT message standards for both cash and securities instructions¹⁹.

As in the MT 202 and pacs.009 examples, a SWIFT payment message identifies the counterparty institution by its BIC, and the currency, amount, and settlement date by fields.

Sharing UTIs

In a trade between parties that both have a reporting obligation, both report the same UTI. The Financial Services Agency guidelines list SWIFT, paper confirmations, and email as the means of sharing the UTI for currency options, NDFs, and NDOs (non-deliverable options). In a SWIFT message, the UTI tags are 22M (UTI Namespace/Issuer Code) and 22N (Transaction Identifier)²⁰. How a UTI is assigned and shared is covered on the Regulatory Reporting page.

What this page does not cover

The definitions of all MT and MX messages, the migration of securities and foreign exchange messages, and SWIFT connection methods and fees are not covered on this page.