The messages that move money.
Each reference explains what the message does, who sends it, the fields practitioners meet first, and the mistakes that cause investigations. Curated for learning — the official specifications remain the complete rule.
MT 1XX — CUSTOMER PAYMENTS
MT 2XX — FINANCIAL INSTITUTION TRANSFERS
- MT202MT202 — General Financial Institution TransferMoves funds between financial institutions where both principal parties are banks: funding and repositioning of nostro accounts, settlement of interbank obligations such as foreign-exchange or money-market deals, and other bank-to-bank transfers with no underlying customer payment attached..
- MT202 COVMT202 COV — General Financial Institution Transfer (Cover)A variant of the MT202 used only to provide cover — the interbank settlement leg — for an underlying customer credit transfer that travels separately, classically an MT103 sent directly to the beneficiary's bank.
MT 9XX — CASH MANAGEMENT & STATEMENTS
PAIN — PAYMENT INITIATION
- pain.001pain.001 — Customer Credit Transfer InitiationCarries a customer's instruction to its payment service provider (PSP) to make one or more credit transfers.
- pain.002pain.002 — Customer Payment Status ReportReports the status of a previously sent initiation message — usually a pain.001 — back to the party that sent it.
PACS — PAYMENTS CLEARING & SETTLEMENT
- pacs.002pacs.002 — FI to FI Payment Status ReportReports the status of a previously received interbank payment message — typically a pacs.008 or pacs.009 — back toward its sender.
- pacs.004pacs.004 — Payment ReturnReturns the funds of a payment that already settled — because the credit could not be applied (closed account, deceased beneficiary), because a recall was accepted, or because the receiving agent must send the money back for another coded reason.
- pacs.008pacs.008 — FI to FI Customer Credit TransferCarries a customer credit transfer between financial institutions — the interbank leg of a payment where the debtor, the creditor, or both are non-bank customers.
- pacs.009pacs.009 — Financial Institution Credit TransferMoves funds between financial institutions where both the debtor and the creditor are themselves banks — the ISO 20022 counterpart of the MT202.
CAMT — CASH MANAGEMENT & INVESTIGATIONS
- camt.029camt.029 — Resolution of InvestigationAnswers an investigation case — most commonly a cancellation request sent as camt.056.
- camt.056camt.056 — FI to FI Payment Cancellation RequestAsks the receiving agent to cancel a previously sent interbank payment — or, if it already settled, to send the funds back.
MT ↔ MX mappings
ALL 4 MAPPINGS →Field-by-field translation tables between the MT and ISO 20022 worlds — including where data enriches, transforms, or has no equivalent.
ISO 20022 code values
OPEN THE CODE REFERENCE →What the 4-letter codes mean — service level, local instrument, category purpose, purpose, charge bearer, settlement method, and priority — with each value and a plain meaning.