MT202

MT202 is the SWIFT message type for a general financial institution transfer: a payment instruction in which one bank moves funds to another bank, for the bank's own account or on behalf of another financial institution. Every party in an MT202 is a financial institution, which is what separates it from the MT103 used for customer credit transfers.

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What MT202 is used for

Banks use MT202 for bank to bank payments where no end customer is the ordering or beneficiary party. Typical uses:
  • funding or settling a nostro account held with a correspondent
  • interbank lending, money market deals and foreign exchange settlement in treasury operations
  • moving liquidity between branches or group entities
  • settling obligations between correspondent banks in the correspondent banking network
The message carries the payment amount, currency code and value date, and names the institutions in the chain: the ordering institution, any intermediary banks, the account with institution and the beneficiary institution. It doesn't name an ordering customer or a beneficiary customer, because there aren't any.
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Key features of an MT202

  • Every party is a financial institution: there's no ordering customer or beneficiary customer, and no remittance information for end customers.
  • It belongs to SWIFT category 2, the financial institution transfers. Like every SWIFT message, it's built from text blocks, with the fields in the text block (block 4).
  • A few mandatory fields carry the transaction reference number, related reference, value date, currency and amount, and the beneficiary institution.
  • SWIFT checks it against network validated rules before it reaches the recipient's bank.
  • It moves funds between the books of banks, so it's settled through nostro and vostro accounts or a payment system rather than credited to a customer's account.
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MT202 vs MT103

MT103MT202MT202 COV
PurposeSingle customer credit transferFinancial institution transferCover for an underlying customer credit transfer
Ordering partyA customer (person or company)A financial institutionA financial institution, with the original customer shown
BeneficiaryA customer's accountA financial institutionA financial institution, with the end beneficiary shown
Typical useA business paying a supplier abroadInterbank transfers and treasurySettling an MT103 sent with the cover method
ISO 20022 successorpacs.008pacs.009pacs.009 COV
The short version: MT103 moves a customer's money, MT202 moves a bank's money. If the funds belong to a customer, the bank should send an MT103, even if a bank to bank transfer is also needed to settle it.
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How an MT202 moves through the correspondent banking network

Take a Finnish bank that needs to pay USD 2 million to a Japanese bank to settle a foreign exchange deal. Neither bank holds an account with the other, so the transfer funds move through their correspondents:
  1. The sending bank sends an MT202 to its US dollar correspondent, its sender's correspondent, which holds the bank's nostro account.
  2. The correspondent debits the Finnish bank's account and passes the payment to the receiver's correspondent, the bank that holds the Japanese bank's dollar account.
  3. That bank credits the Japanese bank, the beneficiary institution, on the value date.
At each step, the funds move from one bank's vostro account to another's, which is why MT202 is the backbone of the settlement process for international payments between banks. The ordering institution and the beneficiary institution see the movement of funds on their statements as a bank to bank transfer, not as a payment to or from a customer.
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MT202 COV and the cover method

In the cover method, the ordering bank sends an MT103 straight to the beneficiary's bank with the customer payment information, and a separate MT202 through its correspondent banks to move the funds. Before 2009, that second message carried no details of the underlying customer credit transfer. Intermediary banks moved the money without seeing who it was for, which made anti money laundering screening and sanctions screening impossible along the way.SWIFT introduced MT202 COV in November 2009 to close that gap. It has a second block that copies the ordering customer, beneficiary customer and remittance information from the underlying MT103, so every bank in the payment chain can screen the full payment. Banks must use MT202 COV, not a plain MT202, whenever the transfer covers a customer payment. Using a plain MT202 to hide a customer payment is a compliance breach.
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The main MT202 fields

FieldNameWhat it holds
20Transaction reference numberThe sender's unique reference for the message
21Related referenceA reference to the related transaction, such as the deal or the underlying MT103
32AValue date, currency code, amountWhen and how much is settled
52aOrdering institutionThe institution that orders the transfer, if not the sender
53aSender's correspondentThe account the sender uses to reimburse the receiver
54aReceiver's correspondentWhere the funds will be made available to the receiver
56aIntermediaryAny intermediary bank between the receiver and the account with institution
57aAccount with institutionThe institution where the beneficiary institution holds its account
58aBeneficiary institutionThe financial institution that receives the funds (mandatory)
72Sender to receiver informationFree-text instructions, with structured codes
Fields 20, 21, 32A and 58a are mandatory. SWIFT checks each message against its network validated rules before delivery, and messages that break them are rejected. Payments are identified end to end by the UETR, the reference that SWIFT gpi uses to track them.
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MT202 after the move to ISO 20022

Cross-border payments on SWIFT are moving from MT messages to ISO 20022. The coexistence period for payment instructions ended in November 2025. Banks are now expected to send a pacs.009 instead of an MT202, and a pacs.009 COV instead of an MT202 COV, with the customer side of a payment sent as a pacs.008.ISO 20022 messages carry richer, structured data, such as full party names, structured addresses and longer remittance information, which helps with screening and reconciliation. MT202 still appears in older systems, bank statements and documentation, so you'll keep seeing the term for some time.
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What it means for a business

You won't send an MT202 yourself. Businesses send customer credit transfers (MT103 or pacs.008), and their bank or payment service provider sends any MT202 or pacs.009 needed to settle them through its correspondents. You may still be asked for one: a supplier chasing a late SWIFT payment sometimes asks for "the MT202" when what helps is the MT103 or pacs.008 confirmation with the UETR. For tracing, the UETR is the reference to share.
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FAQ

MT103 is a customer credit transfer: a person or company is paying someone else's account. MT202 is a financial institution transfer: a bank is moving its own funds, or another bank's, to a financial institution.

COV stands for cover. An MT202 COV settles an underlying customer payment sent with the cover method and repeats the ordering and beneficiary customer details so intermediary banks can screen them.

Less and less. Since November 2025, banks are expected to send pacs.009 for cross-border financial institution transfers, but the MT202 name still appears in older systems and documents.

Usually not. A business payment is a customer credit transfer, so ask for the MT103 or pacs.008 confirmation and the UETR instead.
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Related terms and sources

MT103 · pacs.008 · UETR · Correspondent bank · Nostro and vostro accounts · ISO 20022 · Guide to SWIFT payments · Browse the full glossary
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Last reviewed November 2, 2026Disclaimer
This publication is provided for general information purposes and does not constitute legal, tax, or other professional advice from Narvi Payments Oy Ab or its affiliates, and it is not intended as a substitute for obtaining advice from a financial advisor or any other professional.
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