| Field | Meaning | Required |
|---|---|---|
GrpHdr | The header with message identification, creation date and time, number of transactions, control sum and initiating party. It identifies the file for the bank an | M |
PmtInf | A block grouping payments that share the same debtor, debtor account, execution date and charges bearer. One pain.001 file can hold many payment information blo | M |
PmtInfId | A unique identification for the payment information block, assigned by the customer. It lets the customer and the bank refer to the whole block in status report | M |
PmtMtd | The method used for the payment, normally TRF for a credit transfer, TRA for a transfer advice or CHK for a cheque. TRF is the standard value for a bank credit | M |
ReqdExctnDt | The date on which the customer asks the bank to execute the payment. The bank checks it against cut off times and business days and may move it to the next busi | M |
Dbtr | The customer ordering the payment, with name, postal address and identification. The bank matches the debtor to its customer records and checks signing authorit | M |
DbtrAcct | The account from which the payment is debited, identified by IBAN or other account identification. The bank checks that the account exists, has sufficient funds | M |
DbtrAgt | The bank holding the debtor account, identified by BIC. It is the bank receiving the pain.001 file. The debtor agent validates the file, screens the payments an | M |
CdtrAgt | The bank holding the creditor account, identified by BIC when known. The customer may leave it blank and let the debtor agent derive it from the creditor IBAN. | O |
Cdtr | The beneficiary of the payment, with name, postal address and identification. The bank screens the creditor against sanctions and fraud lists before execution. | M |
CdtrAcct | The account to be credited, identified by IBAN or other account identification. The bank validates the IBAN format and check digits before accepting the file. A | M |
Amt | The amount and currency of the individual credit transfer, for example EUR 10,000. It is the amount the creditor receives before any charges. The sum of the amo | M |
Northgate Trading sends a pain.001 file to Meridian Bank London with one payment information block for 48 supplier payments totalling EUR 120,000, requested execution date 6 November 2026, charge bearer SLEV. The bank validates the file, debits the Northgate account, and reports acceptance in a pain.002.
Valid example from the message catalogue. Scheme rules: pain.001 is a base ISO 20022 message: the structure and fields below are the base definition, and each scheme adds its own rules for its rail. Under SEPA SCT the IBAN is mandatory for debtor and credi
Customer-to-Bank: pain.001, pain.002, pain.008 in Depth
What you will learn
Your objective. By the end of this lesson, you will be able to explain customer-to-bank: pain.001, pain.002, pain.008. The pain.001 message, Customer Credit Transfer Initiation, carries a customer instruction to move money from the debtor account to one or more creditor accounts.
Why it matters. This matters because the message is the payment instruction. A wrong field, a missing element or a misunderstood format is a failed payment, a return, or a compliance breach.
Chapter objective: Learner navigates the complete ISO 20022 catalogue, selecting the right message for each business scenario across payments, cash management, securities, and reporting. Learner practises this skill on realistic banking cases, explaining the reasoning clearly and using correct terminology throughout the work.
Key learning points
- Customer Credit Transfer Initiation
- Pain.001 file must be validated
- Customer Payment Status Report
- Treasurer receives a pain.002
- Bank checks that a signed
- Debtor disputes
Key terms
Remittance information: Information that explains what a payment is for, such as invoice numbers, contract references or salary month.
Execution date: The date on which the bank executes a payment instruction, debiting the debtor account and sending the message onward.
Charge bearer: A code that states who pays the charges for a payment. In ISO 20022 the values are DEBT for debtor, CRED for creditor, SHAR for shared and SLEV for service level.
ISO 20022 XML explorer showing Customer-to-Bank: pain.001, pain.002, pain.008 in Depth.
Practise this lesson
Exercise
Read the pain.001 message described in this lesson and identify its key parts.
Use the message structure, fields and example in this lesson.
- What to do. List the main blocks of the message, name the field that carries the amount, and name the field that identifies the payment.
Correct result. The message is made of blocks, each carrying a part of the payment instruction. The amount field and the identification field are the two a receiving bank checks first, because without them it cannot process or reconcile the payment.
Why. A message is only useful if you can read it. The blocks tell the receiving bank what to do, and the amount and identification fields are what it checks first.
Check your understanding
Practice question
A bank needs to return funds for a payment that was already settled, and the return must carry its own instruction with an amount that may differ after charges. Which message fits?
Takeaway and next step
What to remember
A status of RJCT is always accompanied by a reason code, such as AC01 for an incorrect account number or AM02 for insufficient funds, and the original instruction identifier so the customer can find the failed payment.
Open the message type from this lesson and inspect its fields, then find the field that carries the amount.
Open the ISO 20022 Message Explorer →
Builds on "The Catalogue at a Glance: pain, pacs, camt, admi and head".
Transcript and full text
Show transcript
pain.001 is the customer credit transfer initiation. It is the message a corporate customer sends to its bank to instruct one or more credit transfers. It is the ISO 20022 equivalent of the MT101, and it is used on domestic, SEPA, and cross border channels. The pain.001 has a group header, GrpHdr, which carries the message identification, MsgId, the creation date and time, CreDtTm, the number of transactions, NbOfTxs, and the control sum, CtrlSum. It has one or more payment information blocks, PmtInf, each carrying the payment method, the debtor, the debtor account, the debtor agent, and the requested execution date. It has one or more credit transfer transaction information blocks, CdtTrfTxInf, each carrying the payment identification, the amount, the creditor, the creditor account, the creditor agent, the charge bearer, the purpose, and the remittance information. The group header is the control for the message. MsgId is the reference the sender gives the message, and it must be unique. CreDtTm is the date and time the message was created, in ISO format, for example 2026-05-12T09:00:00. NbOfTxs is the number of transactions in the message, and CtrlSum is the total of the amounts, which the bank checks against the sum of the individual transactions. If the control sum does not match the sum of the transactions, the bank will reject the message, because it cannot be sure that all transactions were received. The group header also carries the initiating party, InitgPty, which names the corporate that sent the message, and it may carry the forwarding agent, FwdgAgt, if the message was sent through a service bureau. The payment information block, PmtInf, is the equivalent of Sequence A in an MT101. It carries the payment information identification, PmtInfId, the payment method, PmtMtd, which is normally TRF for a credit transfer, the number of transactions in this block, NbOfTxs, the control sum for this block, CtrlSum, the payment type information, PmtTpInf, which may carry the service level, SvcLvl, such as SEPA or URGP, and the category purpose, CtgyPurp, the requested execution date, ReqdExctnDt, the debtor, Dbtr, the debtor account, DbtrAcct, the debtor agent, DbtrAgt, and the charge bearer, ChrgBr, which states whether the charges are borne by the debtor, the creditor, or shared. A pain.001 with three debit accounts has three PmtInf blocks, one per account, just as an MT101 with three debit accounts has three different field 25 values in its Sequence B blocks. The credit transfer transaction information block, CdtTrfTxInf, is the equivalent of Sequence B in an MT101. It carries the payment identification, PmtId, with the instruction identification, InstrId, and the end to end identification, EndToEndId, the amount, Amt, with the instructed amount, InstdAmt, and the currency, the creditor agent, CdtrAgt, the creditor, Cdtr, the creditor account, CdtrAcct, the purpose, Purp, the remittance information, RmtInf, which may be structured or unstructured, and the instruction for the debtor agent, InstrForDbtrAgt, and for the creditor agent, InstrForCdtrAgt. Each CdtTrfTxInf is a separate payment, with its own beneficiary, amount, and remittance information, and the bank processes each one separately. pain.002 is the customer payment status report. It is the message the bank sends to the customer to report the status of each payment in a pain.001. It has a group header, GrpHdr, and an original group information and status block, OrgnlGrpInfAndSts, which carries the original message identification, OrgnlMsgId, the original message name identification, OrgnlMsgNmId, and the group status, GrpSts, which may be ACCP, accepted, RJCT, rejected, PART, partially accepted, or ACSP, accepted settlement in process. It has one or more transaction information and status blocks, TxInfAndSts, each carrying the original instruction identification, OrgnlInstrId, the original end to end identification, OrgnlEndToEndId, the transaction status, TxSts, and the status reason information, StsRsnInf, with the reason code, Rsn, and the additional information, AddtlInf. The status codes in a pain.002 are the same codes used in a pacs.002, and an SME must know them. ACCP means the payment is accepted. RJCT means the payment is rejected. ACSP means the payment is accepted and settlement is in process. ACSC means the payment is accepted and settlement is complete. ACCC means the payment is accepted and the creditor account is credited. PART means the group is partially accepted, some transactions accepted and some rejected. The status reason information carries the reason code, such as AC01 for an incorrect account number, AM04 for insufficient funds, AG01 for a transaction forbidden on this account, RC01 for a bank identifier incorrect, and FF01 for an invalid file format. The bank should give a reason code for every rejected transaction, so the customer can correct and re-send it. pain.008 is the customer direct debit initiation. It is the message a creditor sends to its bank to collect a direct debit from a debtor. It has a group header, GrpHdr, one or more payment information blocks, PmtInf, each carrying the payment method, DD, the creditor, Cdtr, the creditor account, CdtrAcct, the creditor agent, CdtrAgt, and the requested collection date, ReqdColltnDt, and one or more direct debit transaction information blocks, DrctDbtTxInf, each carrying the payment identification, the amount, the direct debit transaction, DrctDbtTx, with the mandate related information, MndtRltdInf, the mandate identification, MndtId, the date of signature, DtOfSgntr, and the debtor, Dbtr, the debtor account, DbtrAcct, and the debtor agent, DbtrAgt. The mandate is the authorisation the debtor gave the creditor to collect, and it must be identified in the message, because the debtor bank will check it. For a business analyst, the pain messages are the customer interface. The analyst must be able to specify a pain.001 that carries a multi-transaction payment run, a pain.002 that reports the status per transaction, and a pain.008 that carries a direct debit collection with a mandate. The analyst must know the group header, the payment information block, and the transaction information block, and must know which fields are mandatory, which are optional, and which are conditional. The analyst must also know the status codes, because a pain.002 with a status of RJCT and a reason code of AC01 tells the customer exactly what to fix, and a pain.002 with a status of ACCC tells the customer that the creditor has been paid.
pain.001 is the customer credit transfer initiation. It is the message a corporate customer sends to its bank to instruct one or more credit transfers. It is the ISO 20022 equivalent of the MT101, and it is used on domestic, SEPA, and cross border channels. The pain.001 has a group header, GrpHdr, which carries the message identification, MsgId, the creation date and time, CreDtTm, the number of transactions, NbOfTxs, and the control sum, CtrlSum. It has one or more payment information blocks, PmtInf, each carrying the payment method, the debtor, the debtor account, the debtor agent, and the requested execution date. It has one or more credit transfer transaction information blocks, CdtTrfTxInf, each carrying the payment identification, the amount, the creditor, the creditor account, the creditor agent, the charge bearer, the purpose, and the remittance information.
The group header is the control for the message. MsgId is the reference the sender gives the message, and it must be unique. CreDtTm is the date and time the message was created, in ISO format, for example 2026-05-12T09:00:00. NbOfTxs is the number of transactions in the message, and CtrlSum is the total of the amounts, which the bank checks against the sum of the individual transactions. If the control sum does not match the sum of the transactions, the bank will reject the message, because it cannot be sure that all transactions were received. The group header also carries the initiating party, InitgPty, which names the corporate that sent the message, and it may carry the forwarding agent, FwdgAgt, if the message was sent through a service bureau.
The payment information block, PmtInf, is the equivalent of Sequence A in an MT101. It carries the payment information identification, PmtInfId, the payment method, PmtMtd, which is normally TRF for a credit transfer, the number of transactions in this block, NbOfTxs, the control sum for this block, CtrlSum, the payment type information, PmtTpInf, which may carry the service level, SvcLvl, such as SEPA or URGP, and the category purpose, CtgyPurp, the requested execution date, ReqdExctnDt, the debtor, Dbtr, the debtor account, DbtrAcct, the debtor agent, DbtrAgt, and the charge bearer, ChrgBr, which states whether the charges are borne by the debtor, the creditor, or shared. A pain.001 with three debit accounts has three PmtInf blocks, one per account, just as an MT101 with three debit accounts has three different field 25 values in its Sequence B blocks.
The credit transfer transaction information block, CdtTrfTxInf, is the equivalent of Sequence B in an MT101. It carries the payment identification, PmtId, with the instruction identification, InstrId, and the end to end identification, EndToEndId, the amount, Amt, with the instructed amount, InstdAmt, and the currency, the creditor agent, CdtrAgt, the creditor, Cdtr, the creditor account, CdtrAcct, the purpose, Purp, the remittance information, RmtInf, which may be structured or unstructured, and the instruction for the debtor agent, InstrForDbtrAgt, and for the creditor agent, InstrForCdtrAgt. Each CdtTrfTxInf is a separate payment, with its own beneficiary, amount, and remittance information, and the bank processes each one separately.
pain.002 is the customer payment status report. It is the message the bank sends to the customer to report the status of each payment in a pain.001. It has a group header, GrpHdr, and an original group information and status block, OrgnlGrpInfAndSts, which carries the original message identification, OrgnlMsgId, the original message name identification, OrgnlMsgNmId, and the group status, GrpSts, which may be ACCP, accepted, RJCT, rejected, PART, partially accepted, or ACSP, accepted settlement in process. It has one or more transaction information and status blocks, TxInfAndSts, each carrying the original instruction identification, OrgnlInstrId, the original end to end identification, OrgnlEndToEndId, the transaction status, TxSts, and the status reason information, StsRsnInf, with the reason code, Rsn, and the additional information, AddtlInf.
The status codes in a pain.002 are the same codes used in a pacs.002, and an SME must know them. ACCP means the payment is accepted. RJCT means the payment is rejected. ACSP means the payment is accepted and settlement is in process. ACSC means the payment is accepted and settlement is complete. ACCC means the payment is accepted and the creditor account is credited. PART means the group is partially accepted, some transactions accepted and some rejected. The status reason information carries the reason code, such as AC01 for an incorrect account number, AM04 for insufficient funds, AG01 for a transaction forbidden on this account, RC01 for a bank identifier incorrect, and FF01 for an invalid file format. The bank should give a reason code for every rejected transaction, so the customer can correct and re-send it.
pain.008 is the customer direct debit initiation. It is the message a creditor sends to its bank to collect a direct debit from a debtor. It has a group header, GrpHdr, one or more payment information blocks, PmtInf, each carrying the payment method, DD, the creditor, Cdtr, the creditor account, CdtrAcct, the creditor agent, CdtrAgt, and the requested collection date, ReqdColltnDt, and one or more direct debit transaction information blocks, DrctDbtTxInf, each carrying the payment identification, the amount, the direct debit transaction, DrctDbtTx, with the mandate related information, MndtRltdInf, the mandate identification, MndtId, the date of signature, DtOfSgntr, and the debtor, Dbtr, the debtor account, DbtrAcct, and the debtor agent, DbtrAgt. The mandate is the authorisation the debtor gave the creditor to collect, and it must be identified in the message, because the debtor bank will check it.
For a business analyst, the pain messages are the customer interface. The analyst must be able to specify a pain.001 that carries a multi-transaction payment run, a pain.002 that reports the status per transaction, and a pain.008 that carries a direct debit collection with a mandate. The analyst must know the group header, the payment information block, and the transaction information block, and must know which fields are mandatory, which are optional, and which are conditional. The analyst must also know the status codes, because a pain.002 with a status of RJCT and a reason code of AC01 tells the customer exactly what to fix, and a pain.002 with a status of ACCC tells the customer that the creditor has been paid.
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