Intermediary Bank Routing Failure

In SWIFT flows, intermediary (field 56) and correspondent (field 57) identify the institutions used for routing and settlement. If these are wrong, missing where required, or inconsistent with the ordering and beneficiary banks’ nostro arrangements, the message may be rejected or delayed. Routing failures can also arise when the path does not match the currency, corridor, or product (e.g. direct vs correspondent). Operational impact includes returns, investigations, and possible repair or resubmission.

Routing failures are typically detected at the sender’s bank, the intermediary, or the beneficiary’s bank when the message is processed. Rejection can occur before or during settlement depending on how early validation is performed. Time to detect varies; some systems validate at submission, others at the correspondent or beneficiary hop.

• Verify field 56/57 (or equivalent in MX) against the agreed routing and nostro matrix for the corridor and currency.
• Confirm the ordering and beneficiary BICs and account details are correct and consistent with the routing.
• Check whether the failure is due to a one-off misconfiguration or a change in correspondent or product rules.

• Maintain a routing and nostro matrix and validate instructions against it before release where possible.
• Use pre-execution checks that validate BIC and routing rules for the given currency and corridor.
• Monitor routing-related rejections by corridor and product to spot systematic misconfigurations.