Make a SWIFT international payment (MT103 / pacs.008)

Payments

Send a cross-border payment in any currency, with the beneficiary, charge option and correspondent detail SWIFT needs.

When you need SWIFT

SWIFT is the messaging network banks use to instruct each other across borders. A customer credit transfer travels as an MT103 message (being migrated to the ISO 20022 pacs.008 format). Use it for any cross-border payment, or any payment in a currency where you do not have direct local clearing. The payment may pass through one or more correspondent (intermediary) banks before it reaches the beneficiary.

Building the instruction

1Payments -> New payment, rail SWIFT, and choose the debit account in the currency you are sending.
2Enter the beneficiary IBAN or account number and their bank's BIC (SWIFT code). The portal decodes the BIC to the bank, country and location so you can confirm you have the right institution.
3If the beneficiary bank is not directly reachable, add the intermediary bank BIC — the portal flags when one is needed.
4Choose the charge option: SHA (shared), OUR (you pay all charges) or BEN (beneficiary pays). See the cross-border charges article for which to pick.
5Add remittance information the beneficiary can reconcile against, then submit for approval.

Required fields

Field	MT103 tag	Notes
Beneficiary account / IBAN	:59	IBAN where the country supports it
Beneficiary bank BIC	:57A	8 or 11 characters, ISO 9362
Intermediary bank	:56A	Only when the beneficiary bank is not directly reachable
Amount & currency	:32A	Value date, currency, amount
Charge option	:71A	SHA, OUR or BEN
Remittance information	:70	Invoice or contract reference

Tracking it afterwards

Every SWIFT gpi payment carries a UETR — a unique end-to-end transaction reference. Keep it: it is how you trace the payment across every bank in the chain. See "Trace a payment" for how to follow it and read the gpi status.

Tip

A correct BIC and a correct IBAN are the two fields most worth double-checking — the great majority of returned SWIFT payments are caused by an invalid or wrong-bank BIC (reason code RC01) or a bad IBAN.

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About this guide

Topic: Making payments
Reading time: 4 min
Views: 5,242
Found helpful: 95% (268/283)
Updated: 16 Oct 2026

swiftmt103pacs.008internationalcross borderbicgpi