SWIFT MT to MX: migration and integration

In August 2026, Swift announced a deferral of SR2026 payment changes. The structured address timeline is under review. We assess the impact for your messages, partners and applicable rules.Read the Swift announcement

The move matters. MT has been in use since the 1970s and is limited in flexibility, extensibility and its ability to carry what modern processing needs. MX is built on XML, which places almost no ceiling on what a financial message can carry. Getting from one to the other costs time and resources, because it touches systems and processes that were never designed to change.

This is what our MT to MX solution, Satisco Application Integration, was built for. It runs on IBM tooling — Transformation Extender, Sterling B2B Integrator and MQ — and it exists to make the migration shorter and less risky.

What the solution does

Automated conversion between MT and MX

A complete library on IBM Transformation Extender describes every MT and MX format, with the business and data validation rules that go with them. Pre-built maps handle conversion in both directions, so existing MT messages convert automatically without changing the systems underneath.

Managing the coexistence period

This is the part institutions underestimate. For a period, some counterparties still send MT while others have moved to MX. The router reads message content and applies routing and conversion rules per transaction, so both formats run at once without a parallel infrastructure.

Fitting the systems already there

It runs against existing environments, whether Unix, Linux, Windows or mainframe. Formats are described in a declarative language, which is what lets it follow the SWIFT standard as it keeps moving.

Monitoring that is part of the product

Message exchange is visible in real time, and the monitoring is built to let somebody react while a blockage is still a blockage rather than an incident report. Full visibility over messaging operations is what makes the exchange defensible to an auditor.

B2B connectivity

Sterling B2B Integrator handles the connection to any counterparty. It has been specialised in highly secure communication for many years, and it copes with the range of requirements partners impose.

Partner onboarding

A dedicated tool built on Sterling B2B shortens onboarding: send a link to the counterparty, and the configuration on both sides is set automatically instead of by exchange of emails.

Who it is for

Banks and financial institutions, and equally brokers, agents, investment funds and asset managers. In practice, any organisation whose transactions travel on SWIFT messages.

In production

The solution has been deployed for asset management clients processing several million messages a year.

The short version

MT/MX migration planning covers mappings, counterparty testing, monitoring and deployment. We assess these according to the affected flows and applicable schedule.