MT960 — Request for Service Initiation

The cash management subscription ticket: via MT960, a customer asks their bank to start sending regular statements (MT940, MT942) or another cash management service.

Purpose of the message

MT960 is sent by an account holder to their bank to trigger the start of a recurring cash management service:

• start the daily delivery of an end-of-day statement (MT940);
• enable an intraday MT942 every 2 hours;
• trigger MT900 / MT910 notice production for each movement;
• initiate a balance notification, threshold alert, or other specific cash management service.

MT960 does not carry the operation itself — it triggers the setup of a service. The actual service is then produced regularly (typically daily for MT940, intraday for MT942). The customer can also use MT960 to modify the frequency or parameters of an existing service.

Block 4 structure

Tags in detail

• :20: Transaction Reference — unique MT960 reference. Keep for service-setup tracking.
• :21: Related Reference — reference of a prior message if amending an existing service; NONREF for an initial request.
• :12: MT Number Requested — MT code to be set up. 940 for end-of-day statement, 942 for intraday, 900/910 for individual debit/credit confirmations.
• :25: Account Identification — concerned account (IBAN for SEPA zone, BBAN or proprietary elsewhere).
• :34F: Floor Limit Indicator — minimum threshold below which movements are not reported (useful with MT942 to cap volume). Format: currency + optional sign + amount.
• :38B: Reporting Frequency — frequency code: DAILY, INTRADAY (often every 2h), WEEKLY, MONTHLY.

Real example

ACME Corp asks BNP Paribas to enable daily MT940 delivery on its IBAN FR7630006000011234567890189:

{1:F01ACMECORP1XXX0000000000}{2:I960BNPAFRPPXXXXN}{4:
:20:SVC20260514001
:21:NONREF
:12:940
:25:FR7630006000011234567890189
:34F:EUR0,
:38B:DAILY
-}{5:{CHK:GHI789012345}}

• {1:F01ACMECORP1XXX...} — sender ACME Corp (corporate BIC11).
• {2:I960BNPAFRPPXXXXN} — recipient BNP Paribas.
• :20:SVC20260514001 — ACME service reference.
• :21:NONREF — initial request, no prior reference.
• :12:940 — service requested: MT940.
• :25: — IBAN of the concerned account.
• :34F:EUR0, — no floor limit (all movements reported).
• :38B:DAILY — daily frequency.

Common pitfalls

• Incorrect :12: — the requested MT must be one the bank can actually produce (typically 940, 942, 900, 910). Asking for an unsupported MT triggers a refusal.
• Service conflict — requesting MT942 on an account that already has an active MT942 may trigger refusal (duplicate) or silent update per bank. Always reference the existing service via :21:.
• Malformed floor limit — :34F: must always start with the ISO 4217 currency. EUR0, is valid, 0,EUR is not.
• Account unknown to the bank — the IBAN in :25: must match an account held at the sending bank of the future MT940. Test in pre-production.
• Customer BIC11 missing — many corporates send in BIC8 and the bank doesn't know which branch should receive the confirmation. Always use BIC11.
• No expected ACK — MT960 has no standard SWIFT response: confirmation arrives as an operations e-mail, a proprietary message, or simply the live flow. Track on the client side.

MX equivalents

Related messages

• MT940 — end-of-day statement, triggered by MT960.
• MT942 — intraday statement, triggered by MT960.
• MT900 / MT910 — individual confirmations, triggered by MT960.
• MT920 — Request Message (one-off statement, camt.060 equivalent).
• camt.060 — Account Reporting Request in ISO 20022.