What is the difference between MT202 and MT202COV?

An MT202 is a transfer between banks for their own account or business. An MT202COV moves the funds for a customer payment sent by the cover method and carries the ordering and beneficiary customer details in sequence B.

When is MT200 used instead of MT202?

An MT200 asks the receiver to move the sender’s own funds to the sender’s account at another institution. An MT202 can pay any beneficiary institution.

What is the ISO 20022 equivalent of category 2 transfers?

Mostly pacs.009, Financial Institution Credit Transfer, with a COV variant for cover payments. The notice to receive (MT210) maps to camt.057.

Category 2

Category 2 MT messages: financial institution transfers

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

Category 2 carries transfers between financial institutions: a bank moving its own funds between its accounts (MT200), general bank-to-bank transfers (MT202, MT205), the cover for a customer payment sent by the cover method (MT202COV, MT205COV), financial markets direct debits (MT204) and the advance notice that funds are on the way (MT210).

MT290 to MT299 are the common group for this category: charges, cancellation requests (MT292), queries and answers and free-format messages (MT299).

Like customer payments, bank-to-bank payment instructions moved to ISO 20022 on Swift on 22 November 2025. The equivalent of the MT202 family is pacs.009; MT202, MT202COV and MT200 messages still sent are converted by Swift contingency processing. The multiple transfers MT201 and MT203 were removed from the network on that date.

14 message types in the current standard (6 with a full page), 4 retired.

Category 2 messages

MT200
Financial Institution Transfer for its Own Account
A bank moves its own funds from one of its correspondent accounts to its own account at another bank.
Full page
MT202
General Financial Institution Transfer
Bank-to-bank transfer for the banks themselves: FX settlement, money market, nostro funding.
Full page
MT202COV
General Financial Institution Transfer (cover payment)
Cover leg of a customer payment: bank-to-bank funding plus the underlying customer details.
Full page
MT204
Financial Markets Direct Debit Message
Exchange or clearing house asks a bank to debit third parties’ accounts in its favour.
Catalogue
MT205
Financial Institution Transfer Execution
Passes an incoming bank-to-bank transfer on to the next bank in the same country.
Full page
MT205COV
Financial Institution Transfer Execution (cover)
Passes a cover payment on within one country, with the underlying customer details.
Catalogue
MT210
Notice to Receive
Account owner tells its account servicer that funds will arrive for its account.
Full page
MT290
Advice of Charges, Interest and Other Adjustments
Advises charges, interest or other adjustments booked to an account (bank-to-bank transfers).
Catalogue
MT291
Request for Payment of Charges, Interest and Other Expenses
Asks another institution to pay charges, interest or expenses (bank-to-bank transfers).
Catalogue
MT292
Request for Cancellation
Asks the receiver to cancel an earlier bank-to-bank transfers message.
Catalogue
MT295
Queries
Asks a question about an earlier bank-to-bank transfers message.
Catalogue
MT296
Answers
Answers a query or cancellation request about a bank-to-bank transfers message.
Catalogue
MT298
Proprietary Message
Envelope for bilaterally agreed content (bank-to-bank transfers).
Catalogue
MT299
Free Format Message
Free text between banks about interbank transfers (category 2).
Full page

Retired message types

No longer sent on the Swift network. Listed for people reading old messages or documentation.

MT201
Multiple Financial Institution Transfer for its Own Account
Multiple MT200: a bank moves its own funds to several of its accounts; withdrawn in 2025.
Retired 2025
MT203
Multiple General Financial Institution Transfer
Multiple MT202: two to ten bank-to-bank transfers in one message; withdrawn in 2025.
Retired 2025
MT207
Request for Financial Institution Transfer
Request to debit a financial institution’s account and transfer the funds; no longer in the standard.
Retired
MT256
Advice of Non-Payment of Cheques
Advised the sender of cheque truncation messages that cheques were unpaid; no longer in the standard.
Retired

Category 2 questions

What is the difference between MT202 and MT202COV?: An MT202 is a transfer between banks for their own account or business. An MT202COV moves the funds for a customer payment sent by the cover method and carries the ordering and beneficiary customer details in sequence B.
When is MT200 used instead of MT202?: An MT200 asks the receiver to move the sender’s own funds to the sender’s account at another institution. An MT202 can pay any beneficiary institution.
What is the ISO 20022 equivalent of category 2 transfers?: Mostly pacs.009, Financial Institution Credit Transfer, with a COV variant for cover payments. The notice to receive (MT210) maps to camt.057.

Other categories

All MT messages · ISO 20022 messages · Codes · Troubleshooting