What is the difference between LAAW and LACK?

Both mean your delivery is short. LACK only says the securities are missing. LAAW adds that a purchase or receipt is pending that will cover the delivery once it settles.

What is the difference between LAAW and LINK?

LINK is used when the instructions are linked on purpose, through the linkage fields of the instruction. LAAW is the servicer telling you that settlement depends on another transaction, without a formal link.

Settlement status codes

LAAW: Awaiting Other Transaction

Written and maintained by ZagTrader. Last reviewed 21 October 2026. How this page is sourced and checked

LAAW tells you that your delivery is short of securities and is waiting for another transaction, a purchase or receipt, to settle and cover the position. It is a more specific form of LACK.

Code: LAAW
Kind: Reason (24B)
Used with: PEND, PENF

What LAAW means

LAAW is typical of back-to-back trades. You bought securities and sold them on; the onward delivery cannot settle until the purchase settles. Instead of a bare LACK, the account servicer reports that a covering transaction exists and the delivery is waiting for it.

The link is found by the servicer, not set by you. When you have linked the instructions yourself, for example with :22F::LINK//AFTE or WITH in the MT54x linkage sequence, the waiting instruction is reported with LINK instead.

Under PEND the covering receipt can still settle in time; under PENF the delivery is failing, and often the purchase is failing too, with CLAC or similar on the receipt.

When you see it

On a delivery in an MT548 or sese.024 when your purchase in the same security has not settled, especially in settlement chains where one fail causes a series of others.

What to do next

Find the covering receipt on your MT537 and look at its status and reason: that is the real problem to solve.
Chase the counterparty of the purchase, and tell the buyer of your delivery when you expect to deliver.
If part of the purchase settles, partial settlement of the delivery may release part of the chain if both instructions allow it.
In the EU, a delivery that fails waiting for a failed purchase is still your fail under CSDR cash penalties, while the penalty on the purchase is credited to you; the net effect depends on the two trades.

Where it appears in MT and ISO 20022

MT (ISO 15022)

MT548 sequence A2a (REAS), :24B::PEND//LAAW after :25D::SETT//PEND, or :24B::PENF//LAAW after :25D::SETT//PENF.
MT537 sequence B1 or C3a, :24B::PEND//LAAW or :24B::PENF//LAAW.

MX (ISO 20022)

sese.024 SttlmSts/Pdg/Rsn/Cd/Cd = LAAW or SttlmSts/Flng/Rsn/Cd/Cd = LAAW.

Questions

What is the difference between LAAW and LACK?: Both mean your delivery is short. LACK only says the securities are missing. LAAW adds that a purchase or receipt is pending that will cover the delivery once it settles.
What is the difference between LAAW and LINK?: LINK is used when the instructions are linked on purpose, through the linkage fields of the instruction. LAAW is the servicer telling you that settlement depends on another transaction, without a formal link.