ANNOTATED SAMPLE

MT202 COV cover payment

A fictional cover transfer moving the money for the MT103 sample through a correspondent — sequence B repeats the underlying customer details so every bank in the chain can screen them.

Contributor Shubham Mathure16 July 2026

Illustrative, non-production example. Values are fictional and the message is not validated for any specific network, scheme, or implementation guide.

 1{1:F01DEMODEFFAXXX0000000000}
 2{2:I202DEMOUS33XXXXN}
 3{3:{119:COV}{121:6f9619ff-8b86-4e9f-a6dd-2cce35e4b321}}
 4{4:
 5
 6
 7
 8:52A:DEMODEFFXXX
 9:56A:DEMOUS33XXX
10:57A:DEMOGB2LXXX
11
12:72:/INS/NON-PRODUCTION EXAMPLE
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21:70:NON-PRODUCTION EXAMPLE
22:33B:EUR1250,00
23-}

EVERY ANNOTATED FIELD

:20: Transaction Reference Number (sequence A) — mandatory

The sender's unique reference for the cover transfer.

Distinct from the underlying MT103's reference — the linkage happens through field 21 and the shared UETR.

:21: Related Reference (sequence A) — mandatory

Links the cover to the underlying customer payment.

Market practice is to quote the sender's reference (field 20) of the underlying MT103 here, so the beneficiary bank can match cover to announcement.

⚠ An unmatchable related reference leaves the customer payment waiting for funds that have in fact arrived.

:32A: Value Date / Currency / Amount (sequence A) — mandatory

When the cover settles, in which currency, and for how much.

Should line up with the underlying MT103's settlement details; differences are a classic source of cover mismatches.

⚠ An amount or value date that differs from the underlying payment stalls the credit at the beneficiary bank.

:52a: Ordering Institution (sequence A) — optional

The bank on whose behalf the cover is sent, when it is not the sender.

Seen in relay structures; prefer a BIC in option A.

:56a: Intermediary (sequence A) — optional

A bank the funds must pass through on the way to the account-with institution.

As in the plain MT202, its presence makes 57a required under a network-validated rule.

:57a: Account With Institution (sequence A) — conditional

The bank servicing the beneficiary institution's account, when it is not the receiver.

Required when 56a is present; otherwise used as the routing demands.

:58a: Beneficiary Institution (sequence A) — mandatory

The bank receiving the covering funds — normally the beneficiary customer's bank.

This is the settlement destination of the cover; the beneficiary customer of the underlying payment appears only in sequence B.

:72: Sender to Receiver Information (sequence A) — optional

Bank-to-bank instructions about the cover, often using coded keywords.

Should not be needed to explain the underlying payment — that is what sequence B is for.

:50a: Ordering Customer (sequence B) — mandatory

The customer behind the underlying payment — copied from the MT103 so the cover chain can see who is really paying.

Must replicate the underlying MT103's field 50a unaltered; this transparency requirement is the reason the COV variant exists.

⚠ Truncating or 'tidying' the copied data creates mismatches against the MT103 and triggers screening escalations.

:59a: Beneficiary Customer (sequence B) — mandatory

The customer who will ultimately receive the money, copied from the underlying MT103.

Like 50a in sequence B, it must mirror the underlying customer message unchanged so every bank in the cover chain screens the same parties.

⚠ Divergence between sequence B and the underlying MT103 is a classic cover-mismatch investigation.

:70: Remittance Information (sequence B) — optional

The payment purpose text from the underlying transfer, when the sender chooses to copy it.

Optional in sequence B, but screening teams appreciate having it: free-text hits found here are the same ones the MT103 route will find.

:33B: Currency / Instructed Amount (sequence B) — optional

The originally instructed amount of the underlying payment, when copied across.

Optional in sequence B; when present it should match the underlying MT103's 33B.

FULL MT202 COV REFERENCE →