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Field 50A is the BIC variant of the Ordering Customer field — used when the originator is a financial institution. For individuals and corporates, use 50F or 50K. Draft a valid MT103 →
Format specification: an optional account number (preceded by a slash) on line 1, followed by the BIC (8 or 11 characters) on line 2. Example: 50A:/12345678 followed by DEUTDEFF on the next line. The account number is the nostro account at the correspondent bank that will be debited, if different from the BIC's primary account. The BIC in field 50A must be a valid, active SWIFT member BIC — it identifies the financial institution that originated the payment instruction.
Field 50A is the correct variant when the ordering customer is a bank or other financial institution making a payment from its own account — for example, a bank treasury making an inter-bank loan repayment, a bank processing a return-of-funds payment on behalf of its own books, or a broker-dealer settling a securities transaction via SWIFT. In all these cases the "ordering customer" is the FI itself, not an underlying retail or corporate client.
When an individual or corporate sends a payment, the correct field variants are 50F (ISO 20022-aligned structured format, now preferred) or 50K (legacy free-format). Using 50A for a non-FI originator is technically invalid and will cause compliance screening issues because the sanctions-screening system expects a name and address in the ordering customer field, not just a BIC.
In correspondent banking, field 50A with a BIC is sometimes used in transactions where the message sender (the bank) is also the ordering customer — for example, in MT202 cover payments or in inter-bank settlement instructions originating from the bank's own treasury. In these cases the BIC in field 50A and the SWIFT message sender BIC in block 1 are often the same entity.
Under the FATF Travel Rule and AML regulations, even when field 50A is used for an FI ordering customer, the FI's full legal name and address must be determinable. A BIC alone is considered insufficient by some regulators — the pacs.008 Dbtr element requires a full structured name and address even for FI debtors, closing this gap in the MT103 specification.
| Example value | :50A:BICCODE12XXX |
|---|---|
| Valid characters / format | BIC (8 or 11 chars) |
| Required on MT103 | Mandatory |
| Required on MT202 | Not used |
| Required on pacs.008 | Mandatory |
| Notes | Ordering customer by BIC. |
No — individuals and most corporates must use 50F or 50K. 50A is reserved for financial institutions making payments from their own institutional accounts. Using 50A for a non-FI originator is a compliance error and will likely fail AML screening at correspondent banks.
50A carries a BIC — used for financial institution ordering parties. 50F is the ISO 20022-aligned structured format with tagged sub-fields for name, address, country, and identifier — now the preferred format for individuals and corporates. 50K is the legacy free-format with name and address up to 4 × 35 characters — still common on older systems but being phased out.
Not necessarily. In some scenarios (e.g. a bank acting as agent for another FI), the BIC in field 50A may differ from the message sender BIC in block 1. However, in most FI-to-FI payments, they are the same entity.
A BIC alone in field 50A may not fully satisfy the Travel Rule in all jurisdictions. FATF Recommendation 16 requires the full name, account number, and address of the ordering party. The BIC allows regulators to look up the FI's registered name and address, but some regulators require explicit name/address data in the message itself. Check your specific jurisdiction's requirements.
If your bank receives a SWIFT payment from another bank's own treasury or proprietary account (rather than a payment sent by a retail or corporate customer of that bank), you may see field 50A identifying the sending bank as the ordering customer. This is common in inter-bank loan settlements, return payments, and fee reimbursements.
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