SWIFT MT101

SWIFT MT101

The start of the MT series is the MT101. If there was a course MTs 101 then they might very well start it with MT101 (Pun intended).

MT101 is called a Request for Transfer message. It is a message that is used by corporates and banks (on behalf of their customers) to initiate a customer credit transfer. In simple words, MT101 will result in an MT103 (or MT102 but let us not worry about it now).

In this article, we are not going to discuss the fields and specifications of this message as SWIFT’s official website gives you all the info you need. This article will be about how MT101s are used and some practical insights.

Some basic points to note:

1. Usage of this message is not mandated by SWIFT. This means that you can use a proprietary message, pain.001 or its equivalent 
2. This message is used in the customer to bank space. Although Banks send MT101 to another bank it on behalf of the customer
3. It does not carry any funds instead it results in the initiation of a fund transfer
4. The usage of this message in SWIFT network requires registration in message user group
5. This message can be used to initiate fund transfer between two accounts of the initiator, send domestic payment or international payments
6. Can be used to initiate multiple fund transfers. A single MT101 can result in multiple MT103s.
7. MT101s can be used by parent companies to initiate funds on behalf of their subsidiaries
8. MT101s can be used by parent companies to initiate funds from their subsidiaries account

The following diagrams will help you visualize the above-mentioned scenarios

Scenario 1 – International transfers: In my option, the more popular one is where a corporate sends an MT101 to its banks to initiate an international transfer. 

Scenario 2 – Domestic transfers: MT101 being used to send domestic transfers

Scenario 3 – MT101s resulting in multiple credit transfers

Scenarios 4 – A parent company sends an MT101 to its account servicing bank to debit funds from its subsidiary’s account in another country

Scenario 5: The head office sends funds to transfer requests on behalf of its subsidiaries. This is very similar to scenario 3 hence not creating a separate diagram.