SWIFT Certified Interface

Standards MT Release 2018 Impact on

Messaging Interfaces: mandatory presence
of field 121 Unique end-to-end transaction
reference (UETR)
This document provides messaging interface providers with the requirements to be implemented in support of the
mandatory presence of field 121 in a subset of category 1 and 2 messages.

22 December 2017
SWIFT Certified Interface
Standards MT Release 2018 Impact on Messaging Table of Contents
Interfaces: mandatory presence of field 121 Unique end-to-
end transaction reference (UETR)

Table of Contents
Preface .................................................................................................................................................3
1 Introduction ...............................................................................................................................4
1.1 Overview .................................................................................................................................4
1.2 Glossary ..................................................................................................................................4
1.3 Background .............................................................................................................................4
1.4 Requirements ..........................................................................................................................4
Legal Notices ......................................................................................................................................6

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SWIFT Certified Interface
Standards MT Release 2018 Impact on Messaging Preface
Interfaces: mandatory presence of field 121 Unique end-
to-end transaction reference (UETR)

Preface
About this document
This document describes the behaviour expected from SWIFT certified interfaces in support
of the new business requirements related to fields 111 Service type identifier and 121
Unique end-to-end transaction reference (UETR) that will be introduced with the Standards
MT Release 2018.
Intended audience
This document is for the following audience:
• Providers of SWIFT Certified Interfaces
Related documentation
• Standards MT Release 2018: Updated High-Level Information, 17 November 2017
(swift.com)
• SWIFT gpi Service Description
• Standards MT Release 2018 timeline
First edition
This is the first edition of the document.

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SWIFT Certified Interface
Standards MT Release 2018 Impact on Messaging Introduction
Interfaces: mandatory presence of field 121 Unique end-
to-end transaction reference (UETR)

1 Introduction
1.1 Overview
This document describes messaging interface changes required to comply with the
Standards MT Release 2018 published in the Updated High-Level Information document
published on 17 November 2017.

1.2 Glossary
The list of SWIFT abbreviations and acronyms is here: SWIFT glossary of terms.

Term Definition

gpi SWIFT global payment innovation

Service type identifier A numeric code contained in block 3, field 111 of

a FIN gpi message.

UETR Unique end-to-end transaction reference. This

reference contains a Universally Unique IDentifier
(UUID) compliant with version 4 of standard
RFC4122. It is transported in block 3, field tag 121
of FIN gpi messages. The format of this field is:
xxxxxxxx-xxxx-4xxx-yxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx where x is
any hexadecimal character (lower case only) and
y is one of 8, 9, a, or b

Field 111 Service type identifier

Field 121 Unique end-to-end transaction reference (UETR)

Business Requirements

1.3 Background
As of the Standards MT Release 2018, the FIN user header (block 3) which is currently
optional becomes mandatory and must contain field 121 Unique end-to-end transaction
reference (UETR) for the following message types: 103, 103 REMIT, 103 STP, 202, 202
COV, 205, and 205 COV.
When the sender is acting as intermediary for these message types and when a UETR was
present in the received message, the UETR must be passed, unchanged, to the next
message in the transaction chain. Otherwise, a new UETR must be used.
For MT 202 COV, when the underlying customer credit transfer is an MT 103, field 121 in
the header block 3 of the MT 103 must be copied, unchanged, to field 121 in the header
block 3 of the MT 202 COV.
The details of the format of the user header and of field 121 as well as the required order of
fields in the user header can be found in the FIN Operations Guide.

1.4 Requirements
R.1 Ability to receive field 111 and/or 121 in header block 3, in all category 1 and
category 2 messages
Description: Each messaging interface must be able to receive any category 1 (this
currently applies only to MT 103) or category 2 message with field 121
and/or field 111 from FIN, and process it in line with the normal flow,

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SWIFT Certified Interface
Standards MT Release 2018 Impact on Messaging Introduction
Interfaces: mandatory presence of field 121 Unique end-
to-end transaction reference (UETR)

including passing it on to the back-office.

In support of the migration to the Standards MT Release 2018, interfaces
must treat fields 111 and 121 as optional and rely on central FIN
validation for the presence of these fields.
Note The impacted message types are the following: 101, 102, 102
STP, 103, 103 STP, 103 REMIT, 104, 105, 107, 110, 111, 112,
190, 191, 192, 195, 196, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 202 COV, 203,
204, 205, 205 COV, 210, 290, 291, 292, 295, 296, 298, and 299
Origin: Standards MT Release 2018 CR 1337
R.2 Mandatory presence of field 121 (UETR), in header block 3 of MTs 103, 103 REMIT,
103 STP, 202, 202 COV, 205, and 205 COV
Description: For the referenced messages, interfaces must use field 111 and/or 121
as provided by the creating application. If the application cannot provide
field 121, then the interface must generate and add field 121 to the
message. This functionality must be configurable on the interface.
Note Use of field 111 Service type identifier is reserved for gpi
customers.
Origin: Standards MT Release 2018 CRs 1338, 1339, and 1340
R.3 Make generated UETR information available to the back-office
Description: Interfaces must provide a way to inform the back-office system about
any UETR that has been added.
This is also relevant for messages that have been created or modified
manually.
R.4 Configuration to not send generated UETR information to the back-office
Description: The feature in requirement R.3 must be configurable at back-office
channel level, to avoid conflict with back-office systems not able to
handle the UETR.
R.5 FIN Interface certifications
Description: FIN Messaging Interfaces will be certified for the support of the above
requirements. Implementation must be available on all of the supported
versions of the FIN messaging interface that supports the Standards MT
Release 2018.
Rationale: Once SR 2018 is activated any of the referenced messages without
UETR will be rejected by the SWIFT network with error code U13
Mandatory field tag 121 is missing from header block 3 of the message,
or field 121 is used in a message where it is not allowed, or field tag 121
is incorrectly formatted.

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SWIFT Certified Interface
Standards MT Release 2018 Impact on Messaging Legal Notices
Interfaces: mandatory presence of field 121 Unique end-to-
end transaction reference (UETR)

Legal Notices
Copyright
SWIFT © 2017. All rights reserved.

Disclaimer
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time to time. You must always refer to the latest available version.
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