Last reviewed: · Curated by Ohmyfin Organisation editorial.
On a SWIFT MT103, field 71A specifies who bears the correspondent-bank fees on the payment. There are three valid codes: OUR, SHA and BEN. Draft an MT103 with the right charges code →
OUR (sender bears all charges): The ordering customer pays all fees, including every foreign correspondent bank in the chain. The beneficiary receives the exact amount stated in field 32A. Operationally, the sending bank debits the sender for the payment amount plus an estimate of the expected correspondent fees. OUR is the most expensive option for the sender but gives the beneficiary certainty about the exact amount received — important for paying exact invoice amounts or fulfilling contractual payment obligations.
SHA (Shared, each party pays its own bank): The sender pays their own bank's fees; the beneficiary pays the fees of any foreign correspondent banks. This is the most common default in international banking and is the regulatory default under SEPA rules. Under SHA, the beneficiary typically receives slightly less than the instructed amount, because each correspondent in the chain deducts its own fee. The exact shortfall depends on the number of hops and each bank's fee schedule, which is why beneficiaries sometimes receive an unexpected amount.
BEN (beneficiary bears all charges): The beneficiary pays all correspondent fees, deducted from the amount received. The beneficiary effectively receives the payment amount minus every bank's fees along the entire chain. BEN is rarely used in practice — most banks default to SHA, and many jurisdictions discourage BEN for consumer payments. In a BEN payment, the sending bank typically deducts its own fee from the payment amount rather than charging the sender separately.
The charges code must be carefully chosen for the context: for paying exact invoice amounts (e.g. supplier invoice EUR 10,000.00 in full), OUR is often necessary to ensure the beneficiary receives the full amount. For routine transfers where a small shortfall is acceptable, SHA is typically fine and cheaper for the sender. BEN is generally not recommended for business payments because the resulting shortfall is unpredictable and can cause reconciliation problems.
In ISO 20022 pacs.008, the equivalent of field 71A is the ChrgBr element with values CRED (equivalent to BEN), DEBT (equivalent to OUR), SHAR (equivalent to SHA), and SLEV (service level — charges follow the applicable scheme agreement, used in SEPA Credit Transfers where the rulebook defines the charges allocation).
Either the charges code was SHA or BEN (correspondents deducted fees from the payment amount), or FX margins applied at one of the banks. The Ohmyfin payment tracker shows fees deducted at each hop so you can see exactly where the shortfall occurred.
Use OUR if you need the beneficiary to receive the exact amount (e.g. paying an invoice to the penny). Use SHA for routine transfers where a small shortfall is acceptable — it is cheaper for you and is the SEPA default. Avoid BEN unless the beneficiary has specifically requested it, as the shortfall is unpredictable.
SLEV (Service Level) is an ISO 20022 charges-bearer code used in pacs.008. It means the charges allocation is determined by the applicable payment scheme (e.g. SEPA Credit Transfer rules) rather than the individual instruction. It is used in SEPA Credit Transfers instead of SHAR because the SEPA scheme defines exactly how charges are allocated.
No — the charges code is embedded in the SWIFT message at the time of sending and cannot be changed once the message is in the network. If you sent with SHA and the beneficiary received less than expected, you would need to send a top-up payment for the shortfall.
OUR means the sender aims to cover all correspondent fees, but the sending bank makes an estimate of expected fees and debits that from the sender. If actual fees are higher than the estimate (e.g. an extra correspondent was used), the beneficiary may still receive slightly less. Most banks that offer OUR commit to making up any shortfall rather than passing it to the beneficiary — confirm the policy with your bank.
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