International wire transfer fees.
Who pays which charge.

Wire transfer fees are the charges banks take for handling an international payment. There are three kinds. The sending bank charges for sending the payment. An intermediary bank on the route can charge for passing it on. The recipient's bank can charge for receiving it. Who pays each charge depends on the charge option the sender chose: OUR, SHA or BEN. When the money is converted to another currency on the way, the exchange rate applied also changes what arrives. This guide covers the bank charges.

There is no single figure. Each bank sets its own charges, usually in a published fee schedule or the account terms. The total also depends on how many banks the payment passes through. So ask the sending bank for its fee schedule before you send, and ask whether it can send with the OUR option and what that costs. The recipient can ask their own bank whether it charges for an incoming international payment.

Often, yes. The sending bank, any intermediary bank and the recipient's bank can each take a charge. Which charges the sender pays, and which come off the amount the recipient gets, depends on the charge option. Whether a given bank charges at all is set in that bank's fee schedule or account terms.

The charge option the sender chooses decides it. With OUR, the sender pays all the charges. With SHA, the sender pays its own bank, and the recipient bears the charges of every bank after it. With BEN, the recipient bears all the charges, so even the sending bank's charge comes off the amount. On an MT103-format payment the option is field 71A. In ISO 20022 messages such as the pacs.008, it is the charge bearer element, ChrgBr, and the matching codes are DEBT, SHAR and CRED.

They are the three codes for the details of charges on a SWIFT payment, defined for field 71A of the MT103. OUR means all transaction charges are borne by the ordering customer, the sender. BEN means all transaction charges are borne by the beneficiary customer, the recipient. SHA means shared: the sender pays the charges of the bank that holds the sender's account, and the recipient bears all other charges.

It is the SHA option. The sender pays the charges of the sending bank. Every other bank's charge is borne by the recipient. A bank after the sending bank usually takes its charge from the amount it passes on, so the recipient is credited less than was sent.

It depends on the charge option. Under SHA and BEN, an intermediary bank's charge is borne by the recipient. The bank usually deducts it from the amount it passes on and can list it in field 71F, so it shows as a smaller credit. Under OUR, the charges are borne by the sender. The charges due to the bank that receives the payment can be prepaid inside the amount sent, and field 71G records them.

The two words overlap. A correspondent bank holds an account for another bank, so the two banks can settle payments with each other. An intermediary bank is a bank the payment must pass through to reach the recipient's bank; on an MT103 it is field 56a, the Intermediary Institution. An intermediary is usually a correspondent of the banks on either side of it, which is why both words are used for the same bank. Each one can take a charge.

Because charges came off the amount on the way. Under SHA, the banks after the sending bank can deduct their charges from the amount they pass on. Under BEN, the sending bank deducts its charge too. The recipient's own bank may also charge a fee for receiving the payment into the account, and a currency conversion on the way changes the figure as well. On an MT103-format payment, the instructed amount in field 33B travels unchanged with the payment, so comparing it with the amount credited shows what was taken.

Possibly. Under OUR the transaction charges are borne by the sender, and the charges due to the receiving bank can be prepaid inside the amount sent. In SWIFT's worked example the beneficiary is then credited the full amount. Whether the recipient's bank also charges its own customer for an incoming payment is set by the recipient's account terms, so the recipient should ask that bank.

The charge option moves the charges between the sender and the recipient; it does not remove them. Agree with the recipient who bears the charges before you send. If the full amount must arrive, ask your bank to send with OUR, and ask what it charges for that. Ask the recipient to check whether their bank charges for an incoming international payment.

In the payment details. The recipient's bank can show the credit advice: the amount received and any charge it took. On an MT103-format record, field 71F lists the charges deducted by the sending bank and earlier banks, in the order they were taken, and field 33B shows the amount originally instructed. When a payment is still unclear, the sender gives the sending bank the UETR and asks it to enquire through the banks it instructed.

The charge bearer, the ChrgBr element, is the ISO 20022 field that says who pays the charges. Its code list has four codes. DEBT: all transaction charges are borne by the debtor, the payer. CRED: all are borne by the creditor, the payee. SHAR: charges on the sender side are borne by the debtor and charges on the receiver side by the creditor. SLEV: charges follow the rules of the service level or scheme in use. DEBT, SHAR and CRED match OUR, SHA and BEN.

When a bank reports them. Paste the UETR into uetr.ai. The free check shows the plain-language status and how many banks have reported. The paid view adds the charges, fees and charge bearer each reporting bank recorded. A charge appears only when a bank reports it. No fee entry means no bank reported one, not that no fee was charged. One bank's report covers what that bank recorded, not the whole route.