| Field | Meaning | Required |
|---|---|---|
:20: | A unique reference assigned by the sending bank for this statement message. It identifies the statement for tracking and duplicate detection. The customer uses | M |
:25: | The account the statement covers, identified by account number with the account owner name. It tells the customer system which ledger account to reconcile. A st | M |
:28C: | The statement number and sequence number that identify this statement in a series. They let the customer detect a missing or duplicate statement. The numbers mu | M |
:60F: | The opening balance of the account for the statement period, with the credit or debit mark, value date, currency and amount. It is the closing balance of the pr | M |
:60M: | An additional opening balance when the statement covers an intraday period or a balance was corrected. It carries the same format as the first opening balance. | O |
:61: | One entry in the statement, representing a single debit or credit with value date, entry date, amount, funds code and narrative. A statement can hold many entri | O |
:86: | Supplementary details for a statement line, giving extra information such as the end to end reference or a narrative description. It can carry the beneficiary n | O |
:62F: | The closing balance of the account for the statement period, with the credit or debit mark, value date, currency and amount. It is the opening balance plus all | M |
:62M: | An additional closing balance when the statement covers an intraday period or a balance was corrected. It carries the same format as the first closing balance. | O |
:64: | A forward available balance showing funds expected to be available on a future date, with the credit or debit mark, date, currency and amount. It helps the cust | O |
:90D: | The number and total amount of debit entries in the statement, used as a control total. The customer compares it with its own count and sum of debits. A differe | O |
:90C: | The number and total amount of credit entries in the statement, used as a control total. The customer compares it with its own count and sum of credits. A diffe | O |
Harbour Bank sends an MT950 to Meridian Bank for nostro account 99012345 covering 5 November 2026, opening balance USD 2,400,000.00, with 22 entries including a debit of USD 367,574.90 for a cover payment. The closing balance is USD 2,032,425.10, the control totals agree, and Meridian reconciles every entry to its nostro ledger.
Valid example from the message catalogue. Scheme rules: MT950 follows the SWIFT statement rules for bank to bank accounts and remains in use for nostro reconciliation, even where ISO 20022 reporting is available. Many banks still exchange MT950 daily becau
MT950 Statement Message in Detail
What you will learn
Your objective. By the end of this lesson, you will be able to explain MT950 statement message. The MT950 Statement Message is sent by an account servicing bank to the owner of an account, and it provides a statement of the account for a defined period, in a format designed for bank to bank use.
Why it matters. The key difference is that the MT950 does not carry Field 86 information to account owner lines in the same way as the MT940, because the receiving bank needs the entries and balances for its own ledger, not customer facing narrative.
Chapter objective: Learner explains MT940 and MT950 statements, MT910 confirmations, and how opening, closing booked, closing available and forward balances are calculated. Learner uses real examples with amounts, banks and message names to show how the topic works in practice.
Key learning points
- MT950 Statement Message
- Structure of the MT950
- Typical MT950 for a nostro account
- MT950: essential for nostro reconciliation
- Choosing between the MT940
Key terms
Nostro reconciliation: Reconciliation of a bank nostro account against the statement received from the correspondent bank. Operations teams match each nostro entry to a statement entry, investigate breaks, and confirm the...
Reconciliation: The process of comparing records from two sources, such as a bank statement and an internal ledger, to confirm they agree.
Value date: The date on which funds become available to the beneficiary and on which interest starts to accrue. It is the date used for settlement and for nostro posting.
SWIFT MT message viewer showing MT950 Statement Message in Detail.
Practise this lesson
Exercise
Read the MT950 Statement message described in this lesson and identify its key parts.
Use the message structure, fields and example in this lesson.
- What to do. List the main blocks of the message, name the field that carries the amount, and name the field that identifies the payment.
Correct result. The message is made of blocks, each carrying a part of the payment instruction. The amount field and the identification field are the two a receiving bank checks first, because without them it cannot process or reconcile the payment.
Why. A message is only useful if you can read it. The blocks tell the receiving bank what to do, and the amount and identification fields are what it checks first.
Check your understanding
Practice question
Which of the following best describes MT950 statement message?
Takeaway and next step
What to remember
The key difference is that the MT950 does not carry Field 86 information to account owner lines in the same way as the MT940, because the receiving bank needs the entries and balances for its own ledger, not customer facing narrative.
Open the message type from this lesson and inspect its fields, then find the field that carries the amount.
Open the ISO 20022 Message Explorer →
Builds on "MT940 Customer Statement in Detail".
Transcript and full text
Show transcript
The MT950 Statement Message is sent by an account servicing bank to the owner of an account, and it provides a statement of the account for a defined period, in a format designed for bank to bank use. The most common use is for nostro and vostro accounts, where one bank holds an account with another bank and needs a statement of that account. For example, Barclays in London holds a US dollar account with JPMorgan Chase in New York, and JPMorgan sends Barclays an MT950 each morning showing the overnight activity on that dollar account. The MT950 is therefore a bank to bank statement, while the MT940 is primarily a bank to customer statement. The structure of the MT950 is close to the MT940, but with fewer narrative fields and a tighter focus on balances and entries. Field 20 gives the transaction reference number. Field 25 gives the account number. Field 28C gives the statement number and sequence number. Field 60a gives the opening balance, Field 61 gives the statement lines, and Field 62a gives the closing balance. Field 64 and Field 65 may also appear. The key difference is that the MT950 does not carry Field 86 information to account owner lines in the same way as the MT940, because the receiving bank needs the entries and balances for its own ledger, not customer facing narrative. A typical MT950 for a nostro account might show the following activity for one day. Opening balance USD 4,250,000 credit on 3 November 2026. A credit of USD 1,100,000 from a pacs.008 payment received for a corporate customer. A debit of USD 950,000 for a pacs.009 bank to bank payment sent to a correspondent in Singapore. A debit of USD 18,000 for account charges. Closing balance USD 4,382,000 credit. The receiving bank, Barclays, posts each line to its nostro ledger, checks the closing balance against its own records, and investigates any difference the same day, because an unexplained nostro difference is a break that must be cleared promptly. The MT950 is essential for nostro reconciliation, which is one of the most important daily controls in a bank. Every bank that makes cross border payments holds nostro accounts with correspondent banks around the world, and it must prove each morning that its own record of each nostro account matches the correspondent record. If Barclays records a USD 950,000 payment as sent, and the JPMorgan MT950 shows the same USD 950,000 debit with the same value date and reference, the item is matched. If the MT950 shows a different amount, or no entry at all, the reconciliation team must find out whether the payment failed, was delayed, or was posted to the wrong account. Choosing between the MT940 and the MT950 depends on the receiver and the purpose. A corporate treasurer receiving a statement of its own operating account wants an MT940, with rich Field 86 narrative to support automatic matching to invoices. A bank receiving a statement of its nostro account with a correspondent wants an MT950, with clean entries and balances to support ledger posting and nostro reconciliation. Some banks send both forms for the same account to different recipients. The content overlaps, but the audience and the use are different, and using the wrong form means the receiver gets either too little narrative or too much detail for its system to process.
The MT950 Statement Message is sent by an account servicing bank to the owner of an account, and it provides a statement of the account for a defined period, in a format designed for bank to bank use. The most common use is for nostro and vostro accounts, where one bank holds an account with another bank and needs a statement of that account. For example, Barclays in London holds a US dollar account with JPMorgan Chase in New York, and JPMorgan sends Barclays an MT950 each morning showing the overnight activity on that dollar account. The MT950 is therefore a bank to bank statement, while the MT940 is primarily a bank to customer statement.
The structure of the MT950 is close to the MT940, but with fewer narrative fields and a tighter focus on balances and entries. Field 20 gives the transaction reference number. Field 25 gives the account number. Field 28C gives the statement number and sequence number. Field 60a gives the opening balance, Field 61 gives the statement lines, and Field 62a gives the closing balance. Field 64 and Field 65 may also appear. The key difference is that the MT950 does not carry Field 86 information to account owner lines in the same way as the MT940, because the receiving bank needs the entries and balances for its own ledger, not customer facing narrative.
A typical MT950 for a nostro account might show the following activity for one day. Opening balance USD 4,250,000 credit on 3 November 2026. A credit of USD 1,100,000 from a pacs.008 payment received for a corporate customer. A debit of USD 950,000 for a pacs.009 bank to bank payment sent to a correspondent in Singapore. A debit of USD 18,000 for account charges. Closing balance USD 4,382,000 credit. The receiving bank, Barclays, posts each line to its nostro ledger, checks the closing balance against its own records, and investigates any difference the same day, because an unexplained nostro difference is a break that must be cleared promptly.
The MT950 is essential for nostro reconciliation, which is one of the most important daily controls in a bank. Every bank that makes cross border payments holds nostro accounts with correspondent banks around the world, and it must prove each morning that its own record of each nostro account matches the correspondent record. If Barclays records a USD 950,000 payment as sent, and the JPMorgan MT950 shows the same USD 950,000 debit with the same value date and reference, the item is matched. If the MT950 shows a different amount, or no entry at all, the reconciliation team must find out whether the payment failed, was delayed, or was posted to the wrong account.
Choosing between the MT940 and the MT950 depends on the receiver and the purpose. A corporate treasurer receiving a statement of its own operating account wants an MT940, with rich Field 86 narrative to support automatic matching to invoices. A bank receiving a statement of its nostro account with a correspondent wants an MT950, with clean entries and balances to support ledger posting and nostro reconciliation. Some banks send both forms for the same account to different recipients. The content overlaps, but the audience and the use are different, and using the wrong form means the receiver gets either too little narrative or too much detail for its system to process.
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