MT950 Statement Message

When MT950 is used

Banks hold accounts with each other in many currencies: a bank in Dubai keeps a USD account with a correspondent in New York to settle its USD payments. The correspondent books every payment, cover, foreign exchange settlement and charge on that account and sends an MT950 to the account owner, usually at the end of each business day with movement. The account owner’s nostro reconciliation team matches each entry against its own records.

The MT950 goes from the account servicing institution to the account owner only. Unlike the MT940, it is not sent to third parties on the owner’s behalf, and it has no field 86, no field 21, no option P on field 25 and no forward available balance (field 65). All the information for reconciliation has to fit in field 61: the references, the transaction type and the supplementary details.

Entries cover everything booked to the account, whether or not a Swift message caused them. The standard asks the bank not to bulk separate transactions, so one entry per instruction (per field 20) is booked, and charges that were not advised in another message appear as separate entries.

For long statements the same rules as the MT940 apply: several messages with one statement number and running page numbers in field 28C, 60F and 62F on the first and last message, 60M and 62M in between.

MT950 format: sequences and fields

Rules worth knowing

• Network rule C1 (error C27): the first two letters of the currency code must be the same in fields 60a, 62a and 64.
• Opening balance plus credit entries (C and RD) minus debit entries (D and RC) equals the closing booked balance in 62a.
• Field 61, subfield 7 for a debit is field 20 of the account owner’s instruction that caused it, for example the 20 of the MT103 or MT202 the owner sent. For a credit it is the reference for the beneficiary of the incoming transfer, for example field 21 of an incoming MT202. Without a reference the bank writes NONREF and gives its best alternative in the supplementary details.
• Field 61, subfield 6 uses S plus the message type for entries caused by a Swift message (S103, S202) or advised with one (S910 for a credit confirmed by MT910); N plus a code such as TRF, CHK or FEX where no Swift message applies or a text code is preferred; F plus a code, typically FCHG, for items first advised on this statement.
• Charges can be advised with a separate MT n90 message or directly on the statement. On the statement, the charge must be linked to one underlying transaction (for example by the account owner’s reference), and the principal must appear as its own entry.
• The standard recommends daily statements when the account moved, at least monthly when it did not, and never more than a year between statements. It also recommends sorting entries by debits and credits, and within each by value date and ascending amount, to help manual reconciliation.
• The bank must not bulk separate transactions, charges, or charges with transactions into one entry.

MT950 example

BANKUS33XXX in New York services the USD nostro account 4001234567 of ZagTrader Test Bank, Dubai (ZAGTAEADXXX), and sends its MT950 for 20 October 2026. Three debits (a charge, an MT103 and an MT202 that ZagTrader sent) and three credits (an incoming MT202, a credit advised by MT910 and an FX settlement). Opening USD 8,450,000.00, credits USD 4,230,000.00, debits USD 1,225,035.00, closing USD 11,454,965.00. Entries are sorted debits first, then credits, each in ascending amounts.

{1:F01BANKUS33AXXX0000000000}{2:I950ZAGTAEADXXXXN}{4:
:20:950261020ZAG001
:25:4001234567
:28C:207/1
:60F:C261019USD8450000,00
:61:261020D35,00FCHGZT2610200007//BK26293C000117
:61:261020D25000,00S103ZT2610200007//BK26293P000221
:61:261020D1200000,00S202ZT2610200011//BK26293P000245
:61:261020C500000,00S202FX2610150012//BK26293R000310
:61:261020C980000,00S910CUS2610200991//BK26293R000318
:61:261020C2750000,00NFEXFX2610160044//BK26293F000402
FX DEAL USD/AED 16OCT26
:62F:C261020USD11454965,00
:64:C261020USD11454965,00
-}

Line by line

BICs, account numbers and references are made up.

Common errors and rejects

1. Opening balance does not match the previous closing balance

   A missing or duplicated statement, or a missing page of a split statement. Check the statement and page numbers in 28C before investigating entries.

   How to fix it

2. Unmatched debit on the nostro

   The correspondent debited an amount with a reference you do not recognise. Check subfield 6 first (S103 or S202 points to a message you sent; FCHG to a charge), then search your outgoing messages for the field 20 in subfield 7. If nothing matches, query the correspondent with its own reference from subfield 8.

3. Incoming credit cannot be matched

   The credit carries the payer’s reference for the beneficiary, not your own. Match on amount, value date and that reference against your expected receipts. Credits caused by ISO 20022 payments may carry only part of the end-to-end reference, because field 61 allows 16 characters.

   How to fix it

4. Reversals read as normal entries

   RC is a debit and RD is a credit. Treating RD as a debit doubles the error on the balance.

   How to fix it

5. Field 61 parsed with fixed positions

   Optional entry date, a one or two letter mark and an optional funds code make fixed positions fail. Parse the subfields in order as described on the MT940 page.

   How to fix it

6. Currency mismatch between balance fields (C27)

   The network rejects an MT950 whose 60a, 62a and 64 currencies differ in their first two letters. The servicing bank must correct and resend.

MT950 in ISO 20022

The ISO 20022 equivalent is camt.053. The CBPR+ guideline for camt.053.001.08 states that it covers both the bank-to-bank leg, the role of the MT950, and the bank-to-customer leg of the MT940.

Swift ended MT/MX coexistence for cross-border payment instructions on 22 November 2025. Reporting messages, including MT9xx statements, continue to be supported beyond that date, so correspondents agree with each account owner when to switch from MT950 to camt.053.

For nostro reconciliation the gain is in references: a camt.053 entry can carry the UETR, the end-to-end and instruction identifications and the parties of the underlying pacs.008 or pacs.009, where the MT950 has 16 characters for the owner’s reference and one line of supplementary details.

Related messages

• MT940Customer Statement Message
• MT942Interim Transaction Report
• MT900Confirmation of Debit
• MT910Confirmation of Credit
• MT103Single Customer Credit Transfer
• MT202General Financial Institution Transfer
• camt.053Bank to Customer Statement
• pacs.008FI to FI Customer Credit Transfer
• pacs.009Financial Institution Credit Transfer

MT950 questions

What is an MT950 used for?

Nostro reconciliation. A correspondent bank sends it to the bank that owns the account, listing every entry booked that day, so the owner can check that each payment it sent was debited and each expected receipt was credited.

What is the difference between MT940 and MT950?

The MT950 goes from the account servicing institution to the account owner only. The MT940 can also go to a bank the owner authorised, and adds field 21, option P on field 25, field 65 forward available balances and field 86 narrative for each entry and for the statement.

Does an MT950 have field 86?

No. The only per-entry text is subfield 9 of field 61, one line of up to 34 characters. That is why an MT950 entry is matched mainly on the references in field 61.

What does S910 or S202 mean in an MT950?

S plus a message type. For a debit it names the message that caused the entry, for example S202 for an MT202 the account owner sent. For a credit it names the message used to advise the owner, for example S910 when the credit was confirmed with an MT910.

Is the MT950 replaced by camt.053?

camt.053 is its ISO 20022 equivalent and the CBPR+ guideline covers the bank-to-bank statement. Statements were not part of the November 2025 cut-over and remain supported on Swift, so the switch is agreed between the correspondent and the account owner.