The SWIFT Standards Release Guide 2020 (SRG 2020) will be effective as of the weekend of 21-22 November 2020.

The annual MT Standards release ensures that the message types (MTs) exchanged by SWIFT users remain suitable for the business areas in which they are used, by enabling new business functionality and compliance with changing regulations. 


SR2020 addressed 3 key change requests relating to categories 1 and 2. CR001426, 001428 and 001613. 

CR001426 - This CR proposes to limit the number of lines starting with "1/" (name of ordering customer or beneficiary customer) in fields 50F/59F to two a maximum of two occurrences (max. 2 lines starting with  "1/" followed by max. 33 characters, hence total max. 66 characters). This will ensure that the full content of the name from MT FIN can be mapped to local ISO20022 formats that follow HVPS+ guidelines (max. 66 characters).

CR001428 - Make subfield the country in subfield 3 mandatory for the F option for fields 50 and 59.

CR001613 - A usage rule to mandate 'confirmation' on the outcome of a customer payment (MT 103) to the Tracker (TRCKCHZZ) when funds got credited to the account of the beneficiary customer or when the payment was rejected.

The main highlights of the SRG 2020 include the following changes:

Category 1:

MT 101, MT 102, MT 102 STP, MT 103, MT 103 REMIT, MT 103 STP, MT 110: network validation rule update for fields 50F and 59F: the validation of format option F will allow maximum 2 occurrences of lines starting with 1/ and mandate the presence of a line starting with 3/ which includes at least a country code. There is no obligation to use format option F (field 50A, 50K, 59A, and 59 are still possible and have no additional validation impact in SR 2020).


MT 103, MT 103 REMIT, MT 103 STP: a new usage rule will mandate to provide a "confirmation" on the outcome of a customer payment (MT 103) to the Tracker (TRCKCHZZ) when funds got credited to the account of the beneficiary customer or when the payment was rejected. 

 More information and a rulebook on Universal Confirmations is available via www.swift.com/confirm. Confirmations will enable enhanced transparency, richer information, and superior user experience across the end-to-end payment processing chain and to the benefit of all financial institutions.

SWIFT is developing a range of manual and automated solutions to support customers in the implementation of mandatory "Universal Confirmations" for MT 103:
  • The Basic Tracker - a light version of the gpi Tracker that allows confirming payments manually. Basic Tracker users who meet the Universal Confirmations business rules will also gain the added bonus of accessing the basic search and tracking features.
  • MT 199 confirmations.
  • API calls: banks that have access to the gpi Connector can confirm by sending API calls.
  • An MX (ISO 20022 equivalent) message.
  • A batch confirmation file (csv) option.


Category 2:

MT 202 COV, MT 205 COV, MT 210: network validation rule update for fields 50F and 59F: the validation of format option F will allow maximum 2 occurrences of lines starting with 1/ and mandate the presence of a line starting with 3/ which includes at least a country code. There is no obligation to use format option F (field 50A, 50K, 59A, and 59 are still possible and have no additional validation impact in SR 2020).

Category 9:

MT 910: network validation rule update for fields 50F: the validation of format option F will allow maximum 2 occurrences of lines starting with 1/ and mandate the presence of a line starting with 3/ which includes at least a country code. There is no obligation to use format option F (field 50A and 50K are still possible and have no additional validation impact in SR 2020).

Disclaimer: This publication constitutes advance information only and is not to be considered the final and complete standards documentation. The information in this publication may change from time to time. You must always refer to the latest available version shared with you by SWIFT directly.