What is an MT103?

An MT103 is a standardized SWIFT payment message used for cross-border payments aka international wires.

Why are they so important?

If you haven't read our piece on SWIFT payments, I would start there.  In that article, we discuss how payments can get delayed becasue of the correspondent banking network when using SWIFT to send payments.  If this happens customers always wants to know "where is my money", or "why hasn't my supplier/beneficiary received funds yet".  The short answer is, it is held up in the correspondent banking network, BUT, MT103's to the rescue...

MT103s are globally accepted as PROOFS OF PAYMENT.  They include all payment details such as date, amount, currency, sender, and recipient.  This means you can provide your customers with an MT103 immediately using the Routefusion API. Your customer can then provide the MT103 to their beneficiary to prove that payment has been sent.  In fact, the beneficiary could then present the MT103 to their bank and the bank would credit them the funds.

MT103s are also great for TRACING PAYMENTS that are missing or delayed because they show the route of the payment between the banks.  This is a great feature for payments going over the SWIFT network, but completely unnecessary if you are using Local Payments.

Summary

MT103's are a globally accepted proof of payment aka a receipt.  They can also be used to trace payments in the correspondent banking network to see if funds have been sitting at a bank for too long, etc.  At Routefusion we offer MT103's immediately from our API so you can provide this to your customer ASAP.

If you have any other questions about MT103's please reach out and ask us!  We love to help and educate companies and individuals of all sizes and walks of life about the cross-border payments space.

Email: info@routefusion.com

Schedule a consult: https://routefusion.com/contact

☮️ & 💕 - Routefusion