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MT502 — Order to Buy or Sell

The securities buy / sell order carried on SWIFT for thirty years. Still alive among institutional investors, asset managers and custodians that have not migrated to the ISO 20022 setr family.

Purpose

MT502 carries a buy or sell order for financial instruments from the ordering party (institutional investor, asset manager, family office) to the executing party that will fill it — broker, transfer agent for a fund, or a routing platform (Bloomberg AIM, Calypso, Charles River). It is a non-negotiable message: once sent, the executing party must accept it, explicitly reject it or defer it to the next pricing session.

MT502 covers equities, bonds, UCITS, ETFs, futures and listed options, as long as the instrument is identifiable by ISIN. For unlisted fund units, it has been progressively replaced by setr.010 in the Vestima (Clearstream) and Fundsettle (Euroclear) hubs. For listed equities and bonds it still coexists with FIX-based routing and with secl.003.

Sequence structure

Unlike the flat Cat 1 / Cat 2 (payment) messages, Cat 5 MTs use a sequence encoding delimited by :16R: (begin) and :16S: (end). Each sequence carries a 4-character name:

  • GENL — General Information: identifiers, version, dates.
  • ORDRDET — Order Details: the actual order (side, instrument, quantity, price).
  • SETDET — Settlement Details: settlement/delivery instructions (a sub-sequence of ORDRDET, or a separate sequence depending on the version).

Block 4 tags

TagNameFormatUsage
:16R: / :16S:Start of Block / End of Block4!cDelimits each sequence (GENL, ORDRDET, SETDET, AMT…).
:20C:Reference:4!c//16xIdentifiers: SEME (sender's message reference), PREV (previous reference).
:23G:Function of the Message4!c[/4!c]NEWM (new), CANC (cancel), AMEN (amend), BUYI (buy), SELL (sell).
:98A:Date:4!c//8!nPREP (preparation date), TRAD (trade date), SETT (settlement date).
:35B:Identification of the Instrument4*35xISIN + instrument name or local identifier.
:36B:Quantity:4!c//4!c/15dORDR (ordered quantity), with unit UNIT, FAMT (face amount) or AMOR.
:90A: / :90B:Price:4!c//3!a/15d or :4!c//4!c/3!a/15dDEAL (deal price), limit or market price.
:22F:Indicator:4!c[/8c]/4!cSETR (settlement transaction type), PROC (processing type), TRAN (transaction).

Real-world example

Buy order for 200 Apple Inc. shares (ISIN US0378331005) at a limit price of USD 190.50, sent by BNP Paribas (asset manager) to Northern Trust (executing broker), for a T+1 settlement:

text mt502-buy-order.txt 
{1:F01BNPAFRPPAXXX0000000000}{2:I502NTRSUS33XXXXN}{3:{108:ORD20260515001}}{4:
:16R:GENL
:20C::SEME//ORD20260515001
:23G:NEWM
:98A::PREP//20260515
:16S:GENL
:16R:ORDRDET
:23G:BUYI
:98A::TRAD//20260515
:35B:ISIN US0378331005
APPLE INC
:36B::ORDR//UNIT/200,
:90B::DEAL//ACTU/USD/190,50
:16R:SETDET
:22F::SETR//TRAD
:98A::SETT//20260519
:16S:SETDET
:16S:ORDRDET}
  • :16R:GENL … :16S:GENL — General sequence: reference (SEME), function (NEWM = new order), preparation date.
  • :23G:BUYI in the ORDRDET sequence — side (BUYI = Buy, SELL = Sell).
  • :35B: — ISIN US0378331005 and trade name APPLE INC.
  • :36B::ORDR//UNIT/200, — 200 units (shares) ordered.
  • :90B::DEAL//ACTU/USD/190,50 — limit price USD 190.50 per share.
  • :22F::SETR//TRAD in SETDET — settlement type TRAD (trade).
  • :98A::SETT//20260519 — desired settlement date (T+1 on US markets since May 2024).

Common pitfalls

  • Unclosed sequences — each :16R:GENL must be closed by exactly :16S:GENL. An open ORDRDET sequence triggers a gateway reject.
  • ISIN without prefix — the :35B: tag must carry ISIN (4 chars) + space + ISIN (12 chars). A proprietary variant (CUSIP, SEDOL) requires another identifier scheme and is not universally supported.
  • T+1 vs T+2 settlement date — since 28 May 2024, the US markets (NYSE, NASDAQ) settle T+1. An MT502 with :98A::SETT// at T+2 on a US security is rejected or re-dated by the broker.
  • Ambiguous 23G — an MT502 must carry a single intent per message. Mixing CANC and NEWM in the same flow is an anti-pattern: use two distinct messages.
  • Fractional quantity — :36B: allows decimals (fund units: 125.4326). On most regulated equity markets only integer units are accepted. Check the target market rule.

ISO 20022 equivalent

Depending on the instrument type and the hub, MT502 maps to:

  • setr.001 — Subscription Order for fund units (UCITS, FCP, SICAV).
  • setr.010 — Subscription Bulk Order for bulk processing on Vestima/Fundsettle.
  • secl.003 — Trade Confirmation for listed equities and bonds.
  • MT515 — Client Confirmation of Purchase or Sale, the executing party's reply after execution.
  • MT540 / MT541 — Receive instructions for settlement, triggered after confirmation.
  • MT542 / MT543 — Deliver instructions, seller side.
  • MT509 — Trade Status Message, technical follow-up of the order.
  • ISO 20022: setr.001, setr.010, setr.012.