홈 › Ohmyfin 답변 › My SWIFT payment is lost — who is responsible?
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A SWIFT payment is never truly 'lost' — it is always traceable by UETR. 'Lost' almost always means one of: stuck at an intermediary for compliance screening, rejected and returned silently, or credited to the beneficiary's bank but not posted to the account. The sender's bank has a legal obligation to investigate and locate the funds. Track the UETR on Ohmyfin first to pinpoint the location.
Under most jurisdictions' banking law and the SWIFT GPI rulebook, the originating bank bears responsibility for ensuring the payment reaches its destination or is returned. If a correspondent bank drops the ball, the originating bank must still resolve it — it then recovers from the correspondent bilaterally.
Step 1 — track the UETR on Ohmyfin. This immediately shows: is the payment still in transit (with which bank), has it been rejected (with what reason code), or has it been credited (at which bank).
Step 2 — the sender formally instructs their bank in writing to trace the payment. In the EU, UK, and US, banks have regulatory deadlines to respond to payment tracing requests (typically 4-5 business days to provide an update).
Step 3 — if the payment was sent over 30 days ago and is still 'in transit' at an intermediary, the sender's bank can request the correspondent to return the funds (camt.056 recall). The correspondent cannot simply hold the funds indefinitely.
Real losses (permanent) happen in two scenarios: the beneficiary account has received the funds and the beneficiary refuses to return them (civil dispute, not the bank's liability) and in some sanctions-related freezes where funds are seized by regulators.