Category 1
Category 1 MT messages: customer payments and cheques
Written and maintained by ZagTrader. Last reviewed . How this page is sourced and checked
Category 1 holds the messages banks use when at least one end of a payment is a customer that is not a bank: a company paying a supplier, a person sending money abroad, a fund paying out proceeds. The best known is the MT103 single customer credit transfer. Next to it sit the MT101 request for transfer that corporates and banks use to ask an account servicer to make payments, direct debits (MT104, MT107) and the cheque messages (MT110, MT111, MT112). The multiple customer credit transfer (MT102, MT102STP) and the MT103REMIT were removed from the network on 22 November 2025.
The group from MT190 to MT199 handles everything around a payment: charges (MT190, MT191), cancellation requests (MT192), queries and answers (MT195, MT196) and free-format text (MT199). The same common group exists in every category; see MTn92, MTn95, MTn96 and MTn99.
Since 22 November 2025, cross-border payment instructions between banks on Swift travel as ISO 20022 messages such as pacs.008. MT103s that are still sent are converted by Swift contingency processing, and statement and confirmation messages continue alongside their camt equivalents. The ISO 20022 counterpart of the MT101 is pain.001.
16 message types in the current standard (11 with a full page), 3 retired.
Category 1 messages
- MT101Request for Transfer
Asks the account servicing bank to debit an account and make one or more payments from it.
Full page - MT103Single Customer Credit Transfer
Customer credit transfer: pays a beneficiary customer on behalf of an ordering customer.
Full page - MT103 STPSingle Customer Credit Transfer (STP)
A restricted MT103 that Swift validates for straight-through processing, flagged with {119:STP}.
Catalogue - MT104Direct Debit and Request for Debit Transfer Message
Collects customer direct debits: asks a bank to debit debtors’ accounts in favour of a creditor.
Full page - MT105EDIFACT Envelope
Carries an EDIFACT message between two banks inside field 77F.
Catalogue - MT107General Direct Debit Message
Creditor’s bank orders the debtor’s bank to debit one or more debtors and collect the funds.
Catalogue - MT110Advice of Cheque(s)
Advises the drawee bank of cheques drawn on it: number, date, amount and payee.
Full page - MT111Request for Stop Payment of a Cheque
Asks the drawee bank to stop payment of one cheque; answered by MT112.
Full page - MT112Status of a Request for Stop Payment of a Cheque
The drawee bank’s answer to a cheque stop payment request.
Full page - MT190Advice of Charges, Interest and Other Adjustments
Advises charges, interest or other adjustments booked to an account (customer payments).
Catalogue - MT191Request for Payment of Charges, Interest and Other Expenses
Claims charges, interest or other expenses related to an earlier customer payment.
Full page - MT192Request for Cancellation
Asks the Receiver of an earlier payment to cancel it; answered by MT196.
Full page - MT195Queries
Asks a question about an earlier customer payment or category 1 message; answered by MT196.
Full page - MT196Answers
Answers an MT192 cancellation request or an MT195 query about a customer payment.
Full page - MT198Proprietary Message
Envelope for bilaterally agreed content (customer payments).
Catalogue - MT199Free Format Message
Free text between banks about customer payments: queries, rejects, information requests.
Full page
Retired message types
No longer sent on the Swift network. Listed for people reading old messages or documentation.
- MT102Multiple Customer Credit Transfer
Several customer payments in one message; withdrawn from FIN on 22 November 2025.
Retired 2025 - MT102 STPMultiple Customer Credit Transfer (STP)
STP variant of the MT102 bulk transfer; withdrawn from FIN on 22 November 2025.
Retired 2025 - MT103 REMITSingle Customer Credit Transfer (REMIT)
MT103 with extended remittance data in field 77T; withdrawn from FIN on 22 November 2025.
Retired 2025
Category 1 questions
- What does category 1 mean in Swift MT messages?
- The first digit of an MT type is its category. Category 1 is customer payments and cheques: payments where the ordering or the beneficiary party is a customer rather than a bank, plus cheque and direct debit messages.
- What is the difference between category 1 and category 2?
- Category 1 moves money for customers (MT103); category 2 moves money between financial institutions for their own account or as cover (MT202, MT202COV).
- Are category 1 messages still used after the ISO 20022 migration?
- Bank-to-bank payment instructions moved to ISO 20022 on Swift in November 2025, with contingency conversion for MTs still sent. Some category 1 messages, such as the MT101 between corporates and banks, are used under bilateral agreements and in closed user groups.
Other categories
- Category 2: Financial institution transfers
- Category 3: Foreign exchange, money markets and derivatives
- Category 4: Collections and cash letters
- Category 5: Securities markets
- Category 6: Commodities and reference data
- Category 7: Documentary credits, guarantees and standby letters of credit
- Category 8: Travellers cheques
- Category 9: Cash management and customer status
All MT messages · ISO 20022 messages · Codes · Troubleshooting