| Field | Meaning | Required |
|---|---|---|
:20: | A unique reference assigned by the sending bank to identify this payment through its whole life. It must not repeat for the same sender within the same business | M |
:23B: | A four character code that tells the receiving bank how to handle the transfer. CRED means a normal credit transfer, SPAY means a SWIFT payment, SSTD means a st | M |
:32A: | The value date on which funds become available to the beneficiary, the three letter ISO currency code and the amount to be paid. For USD 25,000 on 5 November 20 | M |
:33B: | The currency and amount in which the ordering customer instructed the payment, when that differs from the settlement currency in field 32A. It preserves the ori | O |
:50a: | The customer who ordered the payment, identified by account number and name and address. Option K gives account, name and address in free text. Option F gives s | M |
:52a: | The financial institution that ordered the transfer when it is not the sender of the message. It is normally the bank holding the ordering customer account in a | O |
:53a: | The account held by the sender with the receiver, or the correspondent bank through which settlement will occur. It tells the receiving bank where to debit the | O |
:54a: | The account held by the receiver with another bank, used when the receiver does not hold the sender account directly. It identifies the next bank in the settlem | O |
:57a: | The bank where the beneficiary holds an account, when it is not the receiver of the MT103. It directs the receiving bank to forward the payment to the correct a | O |
:59a: | The final recipient of the funds, identified by account number and name and address. Option A gives the account and BIC, option F gives structured name and addr | M |
:70: | Free text information for the beneficiary explaining what the payment is for, such as an invoice number, contract reference or salary month. It is limited to fo | O |
:71A: | A three letter code stating who pays the transfer charges. OUR means the ordering customer pays all charges, BEN means the beneficiary pays all charges, and SHA | M |
Meridian Bank London sends an MT103, reference MER1035521, for USD 25,000 value 5 November 2024 to Harbour Bank Singapore to pay Bright Logistics for invoice INV-1187. This is a pre-migration example, from before coexistence ended on 22 November 2025. Field :71A: is SHA, the beneficiary account is given in :59a:, and the payment settles on the value date.
Valid example from the message catalogue. Scheme rules: MT103 is a SWIFT MT (FIN) message, not a base ISO 20022 message: there is no single global scheme rulebook, and each bank and market practice sets its own format limits and cut-off times on top of the
Field 57a Account With Institution: When and Why It Appears
What you will learn
Your objective. By the end of this lesson, you will be able to explain field 57a account with institution: when and why it appears. Field 57a identifies the account with institution, the bank at which the beneficiary holds the account that must be credited.
Why it matters. A payment of 250,000 pounds to a beneficiary in London that names the wrong account with institution can sit in a repair queue for three days while operations teams exchange MT199 free format messages to correct it.
Chapter objective: Learner explains the optional MT103 fields 52a, 57a, 53B, 70 and 71G, and shows how each one changes routing, charges and remittance information. Learner uses real examples with amounts, banks and message names to show how the topic works in practice.
Key learning points
- Field 57a identifies the account with institution
- Field 57a when receiver differs
- Field 57a format options
- Receiver uses field 57a
- Missing or wrong field 57a
Key terms
Suspense account: A temporary account used to hold funds or entries that cannot yet be posted to their final account. Banks use suspense accounts for unidentified receipts, pending investigations and items awaiting...
Clearing: The process of exchanging payment instructions between banks and calculating what each bank owes the others.
Nostro: An account that a bank holds with another bank, usually in a foreign currency, to settle payments in that currency.
SWIFT MT message viewer showing Field 57a Account With Institution: When and Why It Appears.
Practise this lesson
Exercise
Find the field field 57A in the message described in this lesson and explain what it controls.
Use the field description and the example in this lesson.
- What to do. Write down what field 57A carries, what happens if it is wrong, and which system reads it.
Correct result. field 57A carries the value the lesson describes. If it is wrong, the payment is rejected, returned, or misrouted, and the exception must be investigated before the payment can proceed.
Why. Fields are the contract between systems. A wrong field is not a typo, it is a failed payment.
Check your understanding
Practice question
Which of the following best describes field 57a account with institution: when and why it appears?
Takeaway and next step
What to remember
Field 57a is required whenever the receiver is not the bank that holds the beneficiary account.
Open the message type from this lesson and inspect its fields, then find the field that carries the amount.
Open the ISO 20022 Message Explorer →
Builds on "Field 52a Ordering Institution: When and Why It Appears".
Transcript and full text
Show transcript
Field 57a identifies the account with institution, the bank at which the beneficiary holds the account that must be credited. For example, a payment of 120,000 dollars is sent to a beneficiary whose account is held with Banco Santander in Madrid, but the MT103 is sent first to Wells Fargo in New York because the sender holds a dollar account there. Wells Fargo is the receiver, Banco Santander is the account with institution in field 57A with BIC BSCHESMM, and Wells Fargo must forward the payment to Santander rather than crediting any account of its own. Field 57a is required whenever the receiver is not the bank that holds the beneficiary account. If the sender sends the MT103 directly to Banco Santander, the receiver and the account with institution are the same bank, so field 57a is omitted on that final leg. That omission is not an error. It is the signal that the payment has arrived at its destination bank and can be credited directly. Learners who add field 57a on the final leg create confusion, because the receiver then has to decide whether to forward the payment or credit it. Field 57a has the same format options as field 52a. Option A carries the BIC, such as BSCHESMM for Banco Santander in Madrid, and is the normal choice when the beneficiary bank is a SWIFT member. Option D carries the name and address when the beneficiary bank has no BIC or when the sender wants to give a full postal address for a small bank. Option B can carry a party identifier, such as a local clearing code. The sender should use the most precise option available, because a vague 57D can delay the payment while the receiver searches for the right bank. The receiver uses field 57a to decide its next step. If field 57a names a bank for which the receiver holds an account, the receiver debits its nostro account, deducts any charge it is entitled to, and sends a new MT103 to that bank. If field 57a names a bank the receiver cannot reach, the receiver must either find a route through another correspondent or return the payment. For example, if Wells Fargo receives an MT103 with field 57A naming a small bank in Peru that it cannot reach directly, it may forward the payment through Citibank in Lima, and that next hop becomes a new leg in the chain. A missing or wrong field 57a is one of the most expensive errors in payments. If the sender omits it when the receiver is not the beneficiary bank, the receiver may credit a suspense account, hold the funds for investigation, or return the payment as unclear. If the sender enters the wrong BIC, the funds may go to the wrong bank and need to be recalled, which can take days and cost fees. A payment of 250,000 pounds to a beneficiary in London that names the wrong account with institution can sit in a repair queue for three days while operations teams exchange MT199 free format messages to correct it. Worked example with real numbers: a bank in Paris sends USD 367,574.90 to a beneficiary in Madrid, through Wells Fargo in New York as intermediary and Bank of New York Mellon as account with institution, and the MT103 carries field 56A with Wells Fargo BIC PNBPUS3N and field 57A with Bank of New York Mellon BIC IRVTUS3N. The 56A tells the next bank to forward the payment to Wells Fargo, and the 57A tells Wells Fargo to credit the account it holds for Bank of New York Mellon, and the two fields together describe a chain with two hops, not one. Source: SWIFT MT103 format specifications; Paiementor serial analysis of field 56A. Failure and recovery: field 56a fails when the intermediary BIC is stale, or when the intermediary is named but the account with institution is not, so the intermediary receives the payment and does not know where to send it next, and holds it in a queue. The recovery is a pacs.028 status request to the intermediary, asking what it did with the payment, followed by a corrected instruction naming the right intermediary and the right account with institution, and a resend if the payment was returned. A payment held by an intermediary for a week, because the 57A was missing, will be returned, and the sender must resend it with both fields, which takes days, so the BA must require both fields to be validated before the payment is sent, not after it is held. For a business analyst, product owner or subject matter expert, the 56a requirement must name when an intermediary appears, how 56a differs from 57a, and the 56A plus 57A combination, with a worked serial chain showing 56a changing leg by leg. In ISO 20022 the intermediary is carried in the intermediary agent fields of the pacs.008, and the requirement must map field 56a to those fields, so that a payment migrated from MT to MX carries the same chain. A payment where the intermediary is named in MT but lost in MX is a payment that will go to the wrong bank, and the migration test must check the chain, not just the amount.
Field 57a identifies the account with institution, the bank at which the beneficiary holds the account that must be credited. For example, a payment of 120,000 dollars is sent to a beneficiary whose account is held with Banco Santander in Madrid, but the MT103 is sent first to Wells Fargo in New York because the sender holds a dollar account there. Wells Fargo is the receiver, Banco Santander is the account with institution in field 57A with BIC BSCHESMM, and Wells Fargo must forward the payment to Santander rather than crediting any account of its own.
Field 57a is required whenever the receiver is not the bank that holds the beneficiary account. If the sender sends the MT103 directly to Banco Santander, the receiver and the account with institution are the same bank, so field 57a is omitted on that final leg. That omission is not an error. It is the signal that the payment has arrived at its destination bank and can be credited directly. Learners who add field 57a on the final leg create confusion, because the receiver then has to decide whether to forward the payment or credit it.
Field 57a has the same format options as field 52a. Option A carries the BIC, such as BSCHESMM for Banco Santander in Madrid, and is the normal choice when the beneficiary bank is a SWIFT member. Option D carries the name and address when the beneficiary bank has no BIC or when the sender wants to give a full postal address for a small bank. Option B can carry a party identifier, such as a local clearing code. The sender should use the most precise option available, because a vague 57D can delay the payment while the receiver searches for the right bank.
The receiver uses field 57a to decide its next step. If field 57a names a bank for which the receiver holds an account, the receiver debits its nostro account, deducts any charge it is entitled to, and sends a new MT103 to that bank. If field 57a names a bank the receiver cannot reach, the receiver must either find a route through another correspondent or return the payment. For example, if Wells Fargo receives an MT103 with field 57A naming a small bank in Peru that it cannot reach directly, it may forward the payment through Citibank in Lima, and that next hop becomes a new leg in the chain.
A missing or wrong field 57a is one of the most expensive errors in payments. If the sender omits it when the receiver is not the beneficiary bank, the receiver may credit a suspense account, hold the funds for investigation, or return the payment as unclear. If the sender enters the wrong BIC, the funds may go to the wrong bank and need to be recalled, which can take days and cost fees. A payment of 250,000 pounds to a beneficiary in London that names the wrong account with institution can sit in a repair queue for three days while operations teams exchange MT199 free format messages to correct it.
Worked example with real numbers: a bank in Paris sends USD 367,574.90 to a beneficiary in Madrid, through Wells Fargo in New York as intermediary and Bank of New York Mellon as account with institution, and the MT103 carries field 56A with Wells Fargo BIC PNBPUS3N and field 57A with Bank of New York Mellon BIC IRVTUS3N. The 56A tells the next bank to forward the payment to Wells Fargo, and the 57A tells Wells Fargo to credit the account it holds for Bank of New York Mellon, and the two fields together describe a chain with two hops, not one. Source: SWIFT MT103 format specifications; Paiementor serial analysis of field 56A.
Failure and recovery: field 56a fails when the intermediary BIC is stale, or when the intermediary is named but the account with institution is not, so the intermediary receives the payment and does not know where to send it next, and holds it in a queue. The recovery is a pacs.028 status request to the intermediary, asking what it did with the payment, followed by a corrected instruction naming the right intermediary and the right account with institution, and a resend if the payment was returned. A payment held by an intermediary for a week, because the 57A was missing, will be returned, and the sender must resend it with both fields, which takes days, so the BA must require both fields to be validated before the payment is sent, not after it is held.
For a business analyst, product owner or subject matter expert, the 56a requirement must name when an intermediary appears, how 56a differs from 57a, and the 56A plus 57A combination, with a worked serial chain showing 56a changing leg by leg. In ISO 20022 the intermediary is carried in the intermediary agent fields of the pacs.008, and the requirement must map field 56a to those fields, so that a payment migrated from MT to MX carries the same chain. A payment where the intermediary is named in MT but lost in MX is a payment that will go to the wrong bank, and the migration test must check the chain, not just the amount.
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