Mandatory use of SWIFT-supported characters for cross-border payments on HSBCnet

Last updated: 6 June 2016

Effective 19 June 2016, cross-border payment instructions submitted on-screen on HSBCnet must only contain SWIFT-supported characters. If you attempt to submit a cross-border payment containing unsupported characters via HSBCnet, you will receive an “Invalid character” error message on the screen and will need to amend the instruction to proceed.

For payments submitted via File Upload, the Latin characters with diacritical marks (e.g. accented characters) and special characters will be converted to SWIFT-supported characters where possible using the European Payments Council’s (EPC) recommended conversion logic. For example, the French character ‘é’ will be replaced with the English equivalent letter ‘e’.

To view the list of SWIFT-supported characters, select here

HSBCnet will continue to support the use of local language in payment instructions submitted on-screen or via File Upload for cross-border payments from Hong Kong to China and Taiwan. When submitting these payments using File Upload, please ensure you always include the proper encoding method code in the file header. Specifically, as per the industry standard, an XML payment file must always be encoded using UTF-8.

Please note, all cross-border or domestic payment instructions from third party bank debit accounts submitted on HSBCnet on-screen or via File Upload, must only contain SWIFT-supported characters. The only exceptions are domestic third party bank payments in China and Taiwan.

For questions about this payment update, please contact your local HSBCnet Support Centre.