Last reviewed: · Curated by Ohmyfin Organisation editorial.
Field 56A is the Intermediary Institution — a bank in the middle of the SWIFT payment chain that routes the funds from the sender bank to the beneficiary bank when they have no direct relationship.
How an MT103 maps to the UETR (field 121), sender reference (field 20), value-date/currency/amount (field 32A) and beneficiary details. Source: SWIFT MT103 specification.
Details
Format: BIC. Variants 56C (national clearing code) and 56D (free-format) also exist.
Quick facts
SWIFT field specification
Example value
:56A:INTRBNK3XXX
Valid characters / format
BIC
Required on MT103
Optional
Required on MT202
Optional
Required on pacs.008
Optional
Notes
Intermediary institution in the chain.
Key facts
Optional MT103 field
BIC of an intermediary correspondent bank
56C uses a national clearing code; 56D is free-format
Frequently asked questions
How many intermediaries can a payment have?
In standard MT103 only one field 56 entry is allowed. The full hop list emerges from the SWIFT GPI tracking trail.
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