GLOBAL PAYMENTS KNOWLEDGEISO 20022 / SWIFT / SEPA / MT / MX
PAYMENTSSIGNAL

The interactive academy for the standards, messages, and rails that move money.

PROGRESS
DRILL · CORRESPONDENT BANKING, NOSTRO & VOSTRO

Put SWIFT serial payment (MT103) back in order

These steps are shuffled. Put them back into the order the payment actually takes.

In SWIFT serial payment (MT103), what happens first, and what follows?

Step 1 of 1

THE DRILL AS TEXT

  1. In SWIFT serial payment (MT103), what happens first, and what follows?
    • The customer orders a USD transfer abroad — The ordering customer instructs Bank Alfa to pay a supplier banked at Cassia Bank in another country. Bank Alfa has no direct account relationship with Cassia — that is why correspondents exist.
    • Bank Alfa validates and screens — Format and balance checks plus sanctions screening. Cross-border payments face stricter screening because more jurisdictions are involved.
    • The customer's account is debited — Bank Alfa books the debit and, per the charge option, any fees.
    • The MT103 goes to Bank Alfa's USD correspondent — In the serial method the payment instruction itself travels through the account chain. Meridian holds Bank Alfa's USD account (Bank Alfa's nostro), so Meridian can debit it.
    • Meridian validates and screens in the middle — Every bank in the chain screens independently. Meridian also checks that Bank Alfa's account has cover for the debit.
    • Money moves across the books of Meridian — Both Bank Alfa and Cassia hold USD accounts at Meridian. Settlement here is a book transfer in commercial bank money: Meridian debits one account it holds and credits the other.

This drill is built from Correspondent banking, nostro & vostro — it rearranges material written and sourced on that page rather than asserting anything new, so every claim in it is checkable there.