The free format message of Swift category 2: free text between banks about interbank transfers and notices, such as a missing receipt, a question about an incoming MT202, or a reject or return.

What is the difference between MT299 and MT199?

Only the category digit and therefore the routing. The MT199 goes to the team for customer payments (category 1), the MT299 to the team for financial institution transfers (category 2). The layout is the same.

What is the difference between MT299 and MT295?

The MT295 (see MTn95) is a structured query about a specific earlier message: a queries field, the type and date of the original, and an expected MT296 answer. The MT299 is plain text for anything with no other message type.

Can an MT299 cancel an MT202?

No. Send an MT292 request for cancellation, answered by an MT296. In ISO 20022 the request is a camt.056 and the answer a camt.029.

What replaces the MT299 in ISO 20022?

It depends on the use: pacs.002 for payment rejects, camt.110 and camt.111 for investigations, and admi.024 for bilateral correspondence, according to published bank adoption schedules.

Category 2: Financial institution transfers

MT299 Free Format Message (Financial Institution Transfers)

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

The MT299 is the free text message of Swift category 2, used between banks about interbank transfers and related notices when no structured message fits. It carries a reference, an optional related reference and up to 35 lines of text, and the category digit routes it to the receiving bank’s team for bank-to-bank payments. Its ISO 20022 successors depend on the purpose: pacs.002 for rejects, camt.110 and camt.111 for investigations, admi.024 for plain correspondence.

Message type: MT299
Category: 2
Structure: 3 fields listed
ISO 20022: pacs.002, camt.110, camt.111, admi.024

When MT299 is used

Every category has a free format message ending in 99. The MT299 is the one for category 2, so it lands with the team that handles financial institution transfers: MT202, MT205, MT200 and MT210 traffic, nostro funding and FX or money market settlements. A bank writing about a customer payment uses the MT199 instead, and about cash management or statements the MT999.

Typical MT299 traffic: a correspondent tells the account owner that funds announced in an MT210 did not arrive by the cut-off; a bank asks for the purpose or the underlying deal of an incoming MT202 before releasing it; a bank reports that it rejected or returned a transfer; or a bank answers such a message. The related reference in field 21 is optional in the standard but is what lets the other side find the transfer.

Some Swift services use structured versions of the MT299. In Swift gpi, MT299 messages carry status confirmations for cover and financial institution transfers (the gCOV and gFIT services), and the Stop and Recall and Case Management services define MT299 variants too. These variants use a service identifier in field 111 of the user header and coded lines in field 79, and the network validates them against the service rules.

When a message asks a question about a specific earlier message and expects an answer, the structured pair MTn95 (MT295) and MTn96 (MT296) fits better: it has a dedicated queries field and references the original by type and date. To cancel a transfer, the right message is an MT292 (MTn92), never free text.

The n99 layout is shared by most categories; categories 4 and 7 define their own free format messages. See MTn99 for the whole group.

MT299 format: sequences and fields

Message text (block 4)Mandatory

Three fields, no sequences, no network validated rules across fields.

Tag	Name	Status	Format	Meaning
20	Transaction Reference Number	M	16x	The Sender’s reference for this message. No leading or trailing slash and no double slash (T26).
21	Related Reference	O	16x	The reference of the message this one relates to, for example field 20 of the MT210 or MT202 concerned. Optional, but without it the message is hard to route and match.
79	Narrative	M	35*50x	The free text: up to 35 lines of 50 characters from the Swift x character set. A first line starting with /REJT/ or /RETN/ marks a reject or return and must follow the payments reject and return guidelines (T80).

Format notation: n digits, a upper-case letters, c upper-case letters and digits, x any character of the Swift character set, d a decimal number with a comma, ! fixed length, [ ] optional, 4*35x up to 4 lines of 35 characters. M mandatory, O optional, C conditional (a rule decides).

Rules worth knowing

There are no network validated rules across fields; only the format of each field is checked.
If line 1 of field 79 starts with /REJT/ or /RETN/, the content must follow the Swift payments reject and return guidelines (error T80 when the codes are wrong, missing or out of order).
Choose the category digit that routes the message to the unit able to act on it: MT299 for interbank transfers, MT199 for customer payments, MT999 for cash management.
The network accepts a UETR in field 121 of the user header of an MT299, so a message about a tracked transfer can quote the transfer’s UETR there.
An MT299 is information, not an instruction. Funds are not moved, cancelled or returned on the strength of free text; each of those needs its own message.

MT299 example

ZagTrader Test Bank, Dubai, pre-advised BANKUS33XXX with an MT210 (reference ZTN2610200007) that USD 1,200,000.00 from BANKDEFFXXX would arrive on 22 October 2026 under deal reference FX2610200047. By the end of the day the funds have not come in, so BANKUS33 tells ZagTrader in an MT299.

{1:F01BANKUS33AXXX0000000000}{2:I299ZAGTAEADXXXXN}{4:
:20:BUS2610220977
:21:ZTN2610200007
:79:RE YOUR MT210 VALUE 261022 ACCOUNT 0012345678
ITEM FX2610200047 USD1200000,00 FROM BANKDEFFXXX
NOT RECEIVED BY OUR USD CUT-OFF 1800 NEW YORK.
OTHER ITEMS RECEIVED AND CREDITED.
PLS CHECK WITH YOUR COUNTERPARTY AND ADVISE.
-}

Decode this example in the parser

Line by line

Line	What it says
{1:F01BANKUS33AXXX0000000000}{2:I299ZAGTAEADXXXXN}{4:	Sender BANKUS33XXX (account servicer), input MT299 to ZAGTAEADXXX at normal priority.
:20:BUS2610220977	BANKUS33’s reference for this message.
:21:ZTN2610200007	Field 20 of ZagTrader’s MT210, so ZagTrader’s cash team finds the notice at once.
:79:RE YOUR MT210 VALUE 261022 ACCOUNT 0012345678	Free text, at most 50 characters per line. The first line identifies the notice.
ITEM FX2610200047 USD1200000,00 FROM BANKDEFFXXX
NOT RECEIVED BY OUR USD CUT-OFF 1800 NEW YORK.	States the problem plainly.
OTHER ITEMS RECEIVED AND CREDITED.
PLS CHECK WITH YOUR COUNTERPARTY AND ADVISE.	States what the Receiver should do next.
-}	End of block 4.

BICs, account numbers and references are made up.

Common errors and rejects

Line longer than 50 characters in field 79
Field 79 holds at most 35 lines of 50 characters. Text pasted from e-mail fails format validation; wrap it before sending.
Characters outside the Swift x set
Characters such as @, &, #, % or accented letters are not allowed. Write them out (AT, AND) or the message is rejected.
MT299 sent to cancel a transfer
A receiving bank does not cancel an MT202 on free text. Send an MT292 request for cancellation; the answer comes back as an MT296. See MTn92.
Reject or return text not in the agreed format (T80)
A field 79 starting with /REJT/ or /RETN/ must follow the payments reject and return guidelines. Free wording after those codes is refused by the network or misread by the other bank’s systems.
Customer payment query sent as an MT299
A question about an MT103 belongs in an MT199, so that it reaches the customer payments team. In category 2 it can sit in the wrong queue.
No related reference
Field 21 is optional, but a message without it lands in a general queue. Quote field 20 (or field 21 for an MT202) of the message you are writing about, and the UETR where there is one.
How to fix it

MT299 in ISO 20022

There is no single ISO 20022 equivalent of a free format message; it depends on what the MT299 is used for. Rejects of payment instructions, which banks often reported in an MT199 or MT299, are a pacs.002 status report in ISO 20022, as J.P. Morgan’s and Clearstream’s adoption schedules show.

For enquiries and investigations, Clearstream’s schedule maps MT n95 and n99 to camt.110 (Investigation Request) and MT n96 and n99 to camt.111 (Investigation Response), and maps bilateral MT199/MT299 correspondence to admi.024 (Notification of Correspondence). J.P. Morgan’s mapping guide still lists MT199/MT299 as "tbc".

Swift deferred the enquiries and investigations changes from November 2026 to a partial release planned for Q1 2027, according to J.P. Morgan. Until then, MT299 remains in use for investigations between banks.

MT299 questions

What is an MT299?: The free format message of Swift category 2: free text between banks about interbank transfers and notices, such as a missing receipt, a question about an incoming MT202, or a reject or return.
What is the difference between MT299 and MT199?: Only the category digit and therefore the routing. The MT199 goes to the team for customer payments (category 1), the MT299 to the team for financial institution transfers (category 2). The layout is the same.
What is the difference between MT299 and MT295?: The MT295 (see MTn95) is a structured query about a specific earlier message: a queries field, the type and date of the original, and an expected MT296 answer. The MT299 is plain text for anything with no other message type.
Can an MT299 cancel an MT202?: No. Send an MT292 request for cancellation, answered by an MT296. In ISO 20022 the request is a camt.056 and the answer a camt.029.
What replaces the MT299 in ISO 20022?: It depends on the use: pacs.002 for payment rejects, camt.110 and camt.111 for investigations, and admi.024 for bilateral correspondence, according to published bank adoption schedules.

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