UETR
Message TypeUETR (Unique End-to-End Transaction Reference) is the 36-character UUID that tracks a cross-border payment through every bank hop under SWIFT gpi.
A UETR is a universally unique identifier — formatted as a standard UUID v4 (e.g. `3aba4c92-5e52-4e26-9d8d-f7e0c9f6d3a1`) — that is assigned to a cross-border payment at initiation and must be passed unchanged through every financial institution that handles the payment until it reaches the final beneficiary.
Under CBPR+ and ISO 20022, the UETR is a mandatory field in pacs.008, pacs.009, camt.110, and camt.111 messages. Its presence enables SWIFT gpi's real-time tracking functionality and links investigation messages back to the original payment chain.
The UETR is one of the most direct examples of the data-richness improvement ISO 20022 delivers over legacy MT messages — MT103 had no equivalent end-to-end tracking reference, making investigations slow and manual.
Crypto Relevance
A UETR is a reference that bank payment messages carry. Blockchains have their own transaction identifiers, but the coin profiles here do not claim that any coin network carries or maps a UETR.
Related Terms
SWIFT gpi
SWIFT gpi is the cross-border payment tracking layer that adds a unique end-to-end transaction reference (UETR) to every payment message.
CBPR+
CBPR+ is the SWIFT-governed ISO 20022 standard that all banks must adopt for cross-border payments, replacing the legacy MT message suite.
pacs.008
pacs.008 is the ISO 20022 interbank credit transfer message that replaces the legacy SWIFT MT103.
camt.110
camt.110 is the ISO 20022 investigation enquiry message that a bank sends when it needs to query the status of a cross-border payment.
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Sources
Last updated: 2026-09-29