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In practice they mean the same thing — a bank that sits between the sender's bank and the beneficiary's bank in a SWIFT payment chain. 'Correspondent bank' emphasises the long-standing bilateral relationship (nostro/vostro accounts) between two banks. 'Intermediary bank' is the MT103 field name (field 56A). Both describe the same role: routing the payment between the two endpoints.
MT103 field 56A is labelled 'Intermediary Institution' and carries the BIC of the bank that routes the payment from the ordering bank to the beneficiary's bank. In everyday banking language, this is what people call a 'correspondent bank'.
A correspondent banking relationship involves one bank holding an account at another bank. The account held is a 'nostro' account from the holding bank's perspective, and a 'vostro' account from the other bank's perspective. These pre-arranged accounts allow inter-bank settlements without needing to send physical currency.
Most SWIFT payment delays happen at intermediary/correspondent banks — they are the point of sanctions screening, fee deduction, and queuing. When Ohmyfin shows your UETR status as ACSP at a named bank, that is the correspondent currently processing the payment.
In practice they mean the same thing — a bank that sits between the sender's bank and the beneficiary's bank in a SWIFT payment chain. 'Correspondent bank' emphasises the long-standing bilateral relationship (nostro/vostro accounts) between two banks. 'Intermediary bank' is the MT103 field name (field 56A). Both describe the same role: routing the payment between the two endpoints.
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