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Your First SWIFT Payment: What Each Field Means For Business

Your First SWIFT Payment: What Each Field Means For Business

Xe Corporate

January 21, 2026 — 8 min read

The Quick Story of a SWIFT Payment
Field Cheat Sheet: What Each One Means and What to Enter
SWIFT/BIC: What It Is and Why It Matters
Beneficiary: The Person or Business Getting Paid
Beneficiary Account Number vs IBAN: Which One You Need
Intermediary Bank: The Field That Confuses Everyone
Payment Reference: The Small Field That Saves Your Month-End
A Pre-Send Checklist for Your First SWIFT Payment
FAQ
Conclusion

Key takeaways

A SWIFT payment form is mostly a data quality test: the right details in the right fields keep funds moving.
The four fields that cause the most confusion are the beneficiary, beneficiary bank, intermediary bank, and payment reference.
If you are paying internationally often, building a simple intake checklist and naming convention can save hours at month-end.

Sending your first SWIFT payment can feel like you are filling out a form written for banks, not businesses. The good news is that most fields fall into a few simple categories: who gets paid, where their account lives, how the banks route it, and what information helps the recipient match the payment to an invoice. This guide explains the most common SWIFT payment fields in plain English, plus the mistakes that slow payments down.

The Quick Story of a SWIFT Payment

SWIFT is a global messaging network banks use to send payment instructions. Your money may move through one bank or through several, depending on the route. That is why the “chain” fields matter: if the payment needs an intermediary (correspondent) bank, the routing details help it get there without manual repairs.

Field Cheat Sheet: What Each One Means and What to Enter

Field On Your Form	What It Means	What You Should Enter	Common Mistake
Beneficiary Name	The legal name on the recipient’s bank account	The exact account name provided by the recipient	Using a trading name that is not on the account
Beneficiary Address	Recipient’s address information	What the recipient provides (sometimes required for compliance)	Leaving it blank when your bank requires it
Beneficiary Account Number or IBAN	The account to credit	IBAN for many countries, or local account number where IBAN is not used	Typo or missing digits, or pasting spaces incorrectly
Beneficiary Bank Name	The bank holding the recipient’s account	Bank name and country	Choosing a similarly named bank in a different country
SWIFT/BIC	The identifier for the beneficiary bank (and sometimes intermediary bank)	The SWIFT/BIC provided by the recipient’s bank	Entering a bank’s routing number instead of SWIFT/BIC
Intermediary Bank	A correspondent bank used to route funds when the beneficiary bank cannot receive directly	Only include if the recipient or their bank tells you to	Guessing an intermediary and creating a detour
Payment Reference or Remittance Info	The text the recipient uses to match funds to an invoice	Invoice number, PO, vendor ID, and short description	Writing a long message that gets truncated or moved to another field
Purpose of Payment	A short reason for the payment (sometimes required by corridor or bank policy)	A clear, simple purpose aligned to the invoice	Using vague text like “services” when the bank asks for more detail

SWIFT/BIC: What It Is and Why It Matters

A SWIFT code is also called a BIC (Business Identifier Code). It identifies the financial institution in the payment chain.

A BIC is an 8 character identifier¹ used to route and address messages.
Some banks also use an optional 3 character branch identifier to specify a particular branch or unit.¹

What to do in practice

Use the SWIFT/BIC provided by your vendor or shown on their bank instructions.
If you are unsure, validate the bank code before sending. A lookup tool can help you confirm the correct format (SWIFT lookup).

Common pitfall
Teams sometimes paste an IBAN into the SWIFT/BIC field or vice versa. They look “bank-ish,” but they solve different problems: IBAN identifies the account, SWIFT/BIC identifies the bank.

Beneficiary: The Person or Business Getting Paid

“Beneficiary” is simply the recipient.

What matters most is matching the bank’s records:

Beneficiary name: Use the account holder’s legal name.
Beneficiary address: Provide what the recipient supplies. Some banks require it for compliance screening, even if it feels redundant.

Common pitfall
If you pay a supplier that uses a different legal entity for banking (for example, a parent company), your invoice name and bank account name may not match. That is not always a problem, but it can trigger manual review at some banks. When in doubt, ask the vendor for “exact beneficiary name as it appears on the bank account.”

Beneficiary Account Number vs IBAN: Which One You Need

Some countries use IBAN, others do not. If the recipient provides an IBAN, use it exactly as provided.

An IBAN follows a standard structure that starts with a two-letter country code and two check digits, followed by up to thirty alphanumeric characters for the underlying domestic account format.²

What to do in practice

Copy and paste from an approved source (vendor onboarding form, contract, or bank letter).
Avoid reformatting. Some systems accept spaces, some do not.
If you want a second check, use a validator before you send (IBAN calculator).

Intermediary Bank: The Field That Confuses Everyone

An intermediary bank is a bank used in the middle of the route. It is most common when:

The beneficiary bank does not have a direct relationship with your sending bank.
The beneficiary bank requires a specific correspondent for certain currencies.
The vendor gives explicit intermediary instructions.

When you should include an intermediary bank

Use it when your vendor’s banking details include a line like:

“Intermediary bank”
“Correspondent bank”
“Pay through”
“For further credit to”

When you should not include an intermediary bank

Do not guess.

If you add an intermediary that is not needed, you can introduce:

Extra fees along the route
Longer processing time
Misrouting that requires a repair or investigation

Snapshot: The simplest rule
If your vendor did not provide intermediary details, leave that section blank unless your bank instructs otherwise.

Payment Reference: The Small Field That Saves Your Month-End

The reference is where you help the recipient reconcile the payment and where you help your own team close the books faster.

A good reference usually includes:

Invoice number
PO number (if relevant)
Vendor ID (if you use one)
Short description like “March retainer” or “Widget shipment”

A simple reference format you can standardize

Try something like:

INV12345 | PO7781 | Vendor ABC Ltd

Common pitfall
Long messages can be truncated, and different banks pass remittance text differently. Keep it short and structured.

A Pre-Send Checklist for Your First SWIFT Payment

Use this as a lightweight internal control before anyone hits “send.”

Beneficiary and account

Beneficiary legal name matches bank instructions
Account number or IBAN copied exactly
Country and currency match the invoice

Bank routing

Beneficiary bank SWIFT/BIC entered correctly
Intermediary bank included only if provided by the vendor
Bank name and country double-checked

Reconciliation

Reference includes invoice identifier
Supporting docs saved (invoice, payment approval, vendor instructions)

Fraud controls

If bank details changed, you verified through a second channel and followed your internal process (security and fraud)

FAQ

Is SWIFT the same thing as a wire transfer?

SWIFT is the messaging network banks use to send payment instructions. A “wire” is the payment type your bank may label the transfer as. In everyday business terms, many cross-border wires are sent using SWIFT messages.

Do I always need an intermediary bank?

No. Only include an intermediary bank if your vendor’s instructions specify one or your bank tells you it is required. Guessing can create delays.

What should I put in the payment reference?

Use something the recipient can match to an invoice and your team can reconcile later. Invoice number plus a short descriptor is usually enough.

Why did my bank ask for beneficiary address and purpose of payment?

Some fields support compliance checks and local corridor requirements. Even when it feels repetitive, missing details can trigger manual review.

What is the difference between SWIFT/BIC and IBAN?

SWIFT/BIC identifies the bank. IBAN identifies the account in countries that use the IBAN standard.

Conclusion

Your first SWIFT payment gets much easier once you know what each field is trying to accomplish: identify the recipient, identify the bank, route the funds correctly, and include enough information for reconciliation.

If you take one operational step after reading this, make it a vendor payment intake checklist. Most SWIFT payment issues are not “bank problems.” They are missing or mismatched details that can be prevented up front.

How Xe Helps

If your team makes cross-border payments regularly, Xe Business can support international payment workflows with tracking and tools designed for payment operations, including payment methods guidance and options like batch payments for paying multiple recipients efficiently. For businesses managing currency exposure, Xe also offers risk management solutions for eligible customers.

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The content within this blog post is for informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute financial, legal, or tax advice. All figures and data are based on publicly available sources at the time of writing and are subject to change. Actual conditions may vary depending on location, timing, and personal circumstances. We recommend consulting official government resources or a licensed professional for the most up-to-date and personalized guidance.