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Field 33B is the Currency / Original Ordered Amount. It is used when an FX conversion happened before the payment was sent — field 32A shows the settlement currency, field 33B shows the original customer currency. Draft a valid MT103 with field 33B →
Format: 3 letters (ISO 4217 currency code) + amount (comma as decimal separator, no thousands separators). Example: EUR23000,00 in field 33B alongside USD25150,00 in field 32A means the customer originally instructed EUR 23,000 and the sending bank converted it to USD 25,150 before sending the SWIFT message. The presence of field 33B is the signal to every bank in the chain — including the beneficiary bank and any regulatory authority reviewing the message — that an FX conversion was made by the originating bank.
Field 33B is required in the European Union under PSD2 (Payment Services Directive 2) and related EBA technical standards whenever a payment involves a currency conversion. EU payment service providers must disclose the exchange rate, the charges, and the amount in the original currency to the payer before execution. Field 33B provides the machine-readable "original currency and amount" data that supports this disclosure. Omitting field 33B when an FX conversion occurred is a regulatory non-compliance issue in the EU.
The exchange rate implied by field 33B and field 32A can be used to calculate the exact FX rate applied by the sending bank. Dividing the field 32A amount by the field 33B amount gives the rate (or its inverse, depending on the currency pair direction). For example, if 32A is USD 25,150 and 33B is EUR 23,000, the EUR/USD rate applied is 25,150 / 23,000 = 1.0935. This makes field 33B a transparency tool for FX cost benchmarking.
Field 33B is distinct from field 36 (Exchange Rate), which may also appear on some MT103 messages and carries the explicit exchange rate used for conversion. Not all sending banks include field 36, but field 33B is more commonly included because it is required by EU regulations and is also used in SEPA credit transfer processing to satisfy transparency obligations.
In ISO 20022 pacs.008, the equivalent of field 33B is the InstrAmt (Instructed Amount) element within CdtTrfTxInf. When InstrAmt is in a different currency from IntrBkSttlmAmt (Interbank Settlement Amount), the difference signals an FX conversion. pacs.008 also has a separate XchgRate element for the explicit exchange rate, and the Dbtr's bank can include the original debiting amount in a separate sub-element, providing even richer transparency than the MT103 field combination.
| Example value | :33B:USD1000,00 |
|---|---|
| Valid characters / format | 3!a currency + 15d amount |
| Required on MT103 | Optional |
| Required on MT202 | Not used |
| Required on pacs.008 | Optional |
| Notes | Original instructed currency/amount before FX. |
Whenever an FX conversion occurred between the customer's original instruction and the SWIFT message, and whenever the EU PSD2 / SEPA regulatory framework requires disclosure of the original currency and amount. In practice, EU banks must include it on all FX-converted payments. Outside the EU, it is best practice but not always enforced.
Field 33B is only meaningful when it shows a different currency from field 32A. If both are the same currency, field 33B should be omitted — it would be redundant and potentially confusing. Field 33B exists specifically to disclose an FX conversion.
Divide the field 32A amount by the field 33B amount (or the inverse, depending on the currency direction). For example, if 32A = USD 11,000 and 33B = GBP 8,500, the GBP/USD rate is 11,000 / 8,500 = 1.2941. This rate may differ from mid-market by a few percent — the difference is the bank's FX margin.
PSD2 (Payment Services Directive 2) is the EU regulation governing payment services. It requires payment service providers to disclose to the payer the exchange rate applied, the total charges, and the amount in the customer's original currency before and after executing a currency conversion. Field 33B provides the original currency amount that supports this disclosure in SWIFT messaging.
The field 33B data may be shown to you as "original amount" on your payment receipt or statement alongside the "settlement amount" from field 32A. Whether and how it is displayed depends on your bank's statement format. EU banks are required to show you both amounts and the exchange rate under PSD2.
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