Question about wire transfers (MT103)

Mr. Loverman

Hi all

I have a new business bank account.

For wire transfers they want me to use the "MT103" standard.

They have sent me a document which says the following:

Intermediary Bank: Bank in country A (not my bank)
SWIFT Code: Bank in country A swift code

Beneficiary Bank: My bank
SWIFT Code: My bank's swift code

Beneficiary Customer: I have to put in my account name and my account number

Reference: Economic purpose of transfer

This seems a bit weird to me, as I normally just do bank transfers using the IBANN, BIC/Swift, and some sort of message for receiver.

Am I right in thinking I will need to ring my bank (AIB) and ask them to do a "MT103" transfer for me, and they will ask for this information?

Thanks

Agent J

This isn't an American bank is it by any chance? American banks suck at international transfers and don't use IBANs.

MT103 is a type of SWIFT message which is the standard bank international transfer system. If you were making an international wire this is what your bank would already do without being told to.

I'm a little confused though. Who are you trying to send money to? Yourself in another country?

Some American banks which are small state level ones usually use a larger bank as a routing but they really don't need to tell the customer that because it only serves to confuse things. You end up putting money in Larger banks account number for forward credit to State level bank with your own details stuck in the narrative. It's a clumsy way to do things.

Mr. Loverman

Thanks for your reply.

It's a small American bank in the Caribbean. It's a company bank account. So customers would send money to that account. I also want to send money to it.

I understand what you mean about it being clumsy. Now that you mention it I've done it the way you describe with other banks - just include my account in the narrative.

Agent J

Right. You see the Intermediary Bank information? You don't really need that unless spefically asked for it.

Take the bank (AIB) you mentioned. AIB will have a EUR intermediary (or routing) bank and anything from outside Europe will go through that(Inter EU should be SEPA but that's a different story). AIB will never tell you their routing bank unless you spefically ask for it because it's easy information for people who do international transfers to get. You also don't really need and it usually just gums up the works.

All this intermediary/routing stuff is behind the scenes stuff.

Mr. Loverman

That was very helpful. Thank you.