SWIFT MT950 Statement Message – Detailed analysis

The SWIFT MT950 is an account statement sent by a Bank to its customer. We are all familiar with account statements, so it is easy to understand the content of a SWIFT MT950 Statement message. An account statement contains an opening balance, the debit and credit entries booked to the account and a closing balance. Generally the opening balance is the closing balance of the previous statement and the closing balance is the opening balance of the next statement.

The SWIFT MT950 message carries account statement information provided in a specific format. We will look at the SWIFT MT950 in the context of our studies. But that doesn’t matter. What you will see below is valuable for any other situation.

The following picture reminds the context and highlights the key players in the cover payment we have analyzed so far.

In the previous articles, we did the following (Click on the links below to learn more about a specific topic):

1. Detailed analysis of a MT103 announcement sent by the BNP Paribas to Santander
2. Study of the SWIFT MT202 COV sent by BNP Paribas to its correspondent
3. Examination of  the second SWIFT MT202 COV sent by BNPP’s correspondent to Santander’s correspondent
4. Analysis of the SWIFT MT910 Confirmation Credit sent by Bank of New York Mellon to Santander

Now we are considering the SWIFT MT950 sent by Bank of New York Mellon to Santander. It is another possibility for Santander to get the cover. The SWIFT MT950 is highlighted in the green box above.

The table below contains the fields that are transported in the SWIFT MT950 message. An additional column (comments) provides further explanation, so that it is easy to understand each field and what it is used for.

Read this page on the SWIFT formatting rules and Character sets of MT Messages to get additional information and understand what 16x, 35x and the format of the field options mean.

We have three entries in the statement. The first one is of particular interest because it is the entry that IRVTUS3N booked on BSCHESMM’s account when it received the MT202 COV.

Narratives and notes on this SWIFT MT950 message

Below we provide some narratives and notes about the SWIFT MT950 statement message to better understand its meaning and content. Read them and review the table above to grasp the details. The devil is in the details.:-)

Narrative and note 1 (Main purpose of this SWIFT MT950)

With this message, Bank of New York Mellon (IRVTUS3N) is providing an account statement to Santander (BSCHESMM) with all the debit and credit entries booked on the account.

Narrative and note 2 (The SWIFT MT950 is a cover)

The MT950 is also “a cover” like the MT910. When the Beneficiary institution receives the MT950, it has confirmation that its account has been credited with the funds related to the announcement. So the final beneficiary can be credited as well. No need to receive a MT202 COV. This explains why an MT103 announcement can be reconciled with an MT950.

Narrative and note 3 (The entries in the SWIFT MT950)

Statement lines (F61) are probably are the most complex and most interesting fields in the SWIFT MT950. You have to be careful with the references and how they are populated. Some rules are provided in the standard MT. But in practice, it is better to ask the correspondent which rules it applies to populate the references. You will sometimes have surprises.

Narrative and note 4 (Reconciliation of SWIFT MT950 with the MT103 announcement)

To reconcile the announcement with the cover, sender of the SWIFT MT950 (F54 of the MT103 Announcement), date, amount and references provided in the accounting entry are used. Date and amount are not 100% reliable. They might be different than the ones received in the MT103A. References can be provided in Subfields 7 or 8 of the statement line. They are both of format 16x like the format of fields 20 and 21. In general the receiving bank extracts these two fields and check if one matches with the reference of the MT103 announcement. In some case a manual reconciliation can be performed.

The information available in the SWIFT MT950 statement is poor compared to what we have in the SWIFT MT910. The SWIFT MT950 does not contain Date/Time Indication. Information like ordering or intermediary institutions is missing as well. The related reference can be easily extracted from a MT910. That is why banks generally request their correspondent to send a SWIFT MT910 Confirmation of Credit.

To continue with our analysis of statement messages, the next article will be about the SWIFT MT940.