How to track a SWIFT payment and find out why it's late

The short answer

Ask your bank for the payment's UETR, the 36-character reference every SWIFT payment carries, and for a copy of the pacs.008 or MT103 confirmation. With the UETR, your bank can see in Swift's tracker whether the payment was delivered, is on hold, was rejected or has been credited. Swift's data shows most of the delay happens at the receiving bank, so send the confirmation to the payee and ask them to take it to their bank.

Find the payment: the UETR and the tracker

Swift describes the UETR (unique end-to-end transaction reference) as "a string of 36 unique characters featured in all payment instruction messages carried over Swift." Your bank creates it when it sends the payment. Intermediary banks must pass it on unchanged, so it works like a courier's tracking number. Swift made it mandatory in payment instructions from 18 November 2018.

The UETR feeds Swift's tracker. Since the end of 2020, Swift has required banks to confirm the status of customer payments to the tracker, including when they credit the payee. According to Swift, GPI tracking gives near real-time updates on rejections, payments on hold, delivery and confirmation of credit, and shows the fees charged at each stage.

You see this through your bank. The full GPI Tracker is a paid service for banks, and a basic version is free. HSBC's HSBCnet, for example, lets business customers track payments themselves, and UBS offers GPI tracking to corporate clients that are Swift members. If your bank doesn't offer that, ask its payments team to look up the UETR.

The confirmation: MT103 or pacs.008

The confirmation is a copy of the instruction your bank sent. Flywire describes it as a document that "confirms that your bank has sent the payment and shows the transaction details, including any fees." It carries the UETR, the amount, the date and the charge code.

The pacs.008 is the ISO 20022 equivalent of the MT103, according to BNY. Since Swift ended the coexistence of the two formats, banks send pacs.008, but payees may still ask for an MT103. Flywire accepts both as proof.

Ask for one when:

• The payee says nothing has arrived after the expected time. Flywire may ask for one after three business days.
• The payment arrived short and you need to see the charge code.
• A supplier needs proof before releasing goods.

How long SWIFT payments take

The gap is the last step. Swift says the leg from the receiving bank to the customer accounts for over 80% of total payment time. A Federal Reserve note from August 2026 found that 73.1% of cross-border payments over $100,000 received in North America in 2025 arrived within an hour.

Why payments are late

Compliance checks at the receiving bank. Swift names regulatory reporting first: banks may need to verify or report details such as the purpose of the payment before crediting it. Some countries also require approval from local authorities, particularly for payments above set thresholds or in foreign currencies. Manual checks hold payments until someone reviews them.

Intermediary banks. Each bank in the chain is another queue and another possible deduction. Swift says 86% of payments go direct or through one intermediary; the rest pass through more.

Cut-off times. A payment sent after your bank's cut-off leaves the next business day. Lloyds' March 2026 brochure gives business customers until 5:40 p.m. UK time for same-day USD payments and 3:45 p.m. for urgent euro payments. In the US, Fedwire accepts customer transfers until 6:45 p.m. ET.

Weekends and holidays. Swift says payments received outside business hours may be credited on the next working day. Fedwire is closed on Federal Reserve holidays, including 11 November, 26 November and 25 December 2026. The ECB says T2, the euro area's settlement system, also closes on 1 January, Good Friday, Easter Monday, 1 May, and 25 and 26 December.

Wrong or missing details. A name that doesn't match the account, a wrong account number or a missing address sends the payment to manual repair or back to you. HSBC Bank plc's February 2025 price list charges business customers £20 when it has to contact them for missing information or to correct details. See why international payments get rejected or returned.

ISO 20022: where the migration stands

• 22 November 2025. Swift ended the coexistence of MT and ISO 20022 for cross-border payments. In its 25 November announcement, it said ISO 20022 "is now required for all payment instructions," that 97% of payment instructions had been sent in ISO 20022 the previous day, and that a conversion service would translate remaining MT messages "for a period."
• July 2025. Fedwire moved to ISO 20022, according to the Federal Reserve.
• Structured addresses, postponed. Swift had planned to remove fully unstructured postal addresses in November 2026. On 27 August 2026, it accepted a community request to extend that timeline and said it would give an update by December 2026 at the latest; its 21 September 2026 update set no new date for addresses. Federal Reserve Financial Services moved its next Fedwire release from November 2026 to November 2027, citing the same address change.

In the meantime, give the payee's address in structured form, or at least with town and country in their own fields. J.P. Morgan warns that payments that don't meet the new address standards may be rejected or delayed.

What to ask your bank

1. The UETR and a copy of the pacs.008 or MT103.
2. The tracker status, and which bank holds the payment now.
3. If it's on hold, why, and what documents the holding bank needs.
4. The charge code, and any fees deducted so far.
5. Whether to open an investigation, and its cost. HSBC's February 2025 price list charges £25 for a payment inquiry, plus any other banks' fees. Bank of America bills tracers, amendments and recalls at its outgoing wire fee, $45 for an international USD wire in its November 2024 schedule.
6. If the details were wrong, whether it can amend or recall the payment.

Then send the payee the UETR and confirmation, and ask them to give both to their bank.

How this works with Align

Align provides named accounts in your company's name: USD over ACH, Fedwire and SWIFT, EUR over SEPA and SEPA Instant, and GBP over Faster Payments. ACH and wire access isn't switched on automatically: you request it, and Align's US banking partner runs a second review after Align's KYB and can decline or set limits. When a customer or supplier can use the local rail for the currency, the payment goes through that country's clearing system rather than a chain of correspondent banks. Your balance is held in USDC or USDT and converted when you pay. See virtual accounts.

Sources

• Swift, What is a UETR? (accessed October 2026) and What are UETRs and are you ready to process them? (October 2018)
• Swift, Swift GPI and How long does a Swift payment take? (accessed October 2026)
• Swift, Data shows focus needed on beneficiary leg and press release (October 2024)
• Swift, Global financial community completes switch to ISO 20022 (November 2025)
• Swift, Swift accepts community request to extend structured address migration (August 2026, updated September 2026)
• Federal Reserve, A decade of U.S. cross-border payments efforts (August 2026)
• Federal Reserve Financial Services, Fedwire operating hours, holiday schedules and Fedwire release rescheduled (August 2026)
• European Central Bank, T2 (accessed October 2026)
• J.P. Morgan, ISO 20022 migration: client resources (accessed October 2026)
• BNY, A deep dive on pacs.008 (December 2024)
• Flywire, What is an MT103 or pacs.008? (accessed October 2026)
• HSBC, HSBCnet Track Payments and business price list (February 2025)
• UBS, gpi for corporates (accessed October 2026)
• Lloyds Bank, Payment transaction brochure (March 2026)
• Bank of America, Business schedule of fees (effective 15 November 2024)