Swift – BEA SWIFT Adapter User Manual
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SWIFT
S.W.I.F.T. SCRL is the abbreviation for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial
Telecommunication, Societé Coopérative à Responsibilité Limitée. SWIFT’s purpose is
to provide technology-based communication services across all financial markets
through member banks so that they can profitably meet their own and their
end-customers’ needs.
In a financial perspective, standards enable financial institutions to move from
manual to automated initiation and processing of financial transactions. The message
text standards have been developed to support the business transactions of
S.W.I.F.T. users. To ensure that the multitude of practices and conventions of users
are in harmony, financial messages transmitted via the S.W.I.F.T. network must
adhere to the message text standards.
There are important benefits because of standardization of messages. These include:
automation,
reduced risk of errors and misunderstandings,
reduced operating costs,
improved productivity,
increased efficiency in processing of messages (routing and preparation),
faster and more cost effective account reconciliation, and
the ability to maintain more comprehensive management information.
SWIFT messages are represented by a three-digit number, for example, MT 112.
The first digit defines the message category, indicating the general usage of
the message. Here, Category 1 refers to Customer Payments & Cheques.
The second digit of the message type indicates the message group. For
example, Message group 1 refers to Cheque Payments.
The third digit indicates the particular type of message, representing a specific
function of the message. In our example, Message type 2 refers to Status of a
Request for Stop Payment of a Cheque.
See Also: