UK accounts: additional charge codes for payment files available 22 March 2021

Last updated: 13 January 2021

Beginning 22 March 2021, in accordance with local regulatory changes, additional charge codes will be available when submitting cross-border payment files using File Upload or HSBC Connect.

What’s changing?

All European cross-border payments are required to use ‘SHA’ charge code meaning that the payment charges are shared, where the sender and the beneficiary each pay their own bank’s charges. In accordance with current regulations, HSBC currently overrides any contrary instructions.

From 22 March 2021, in addition to the ‘SHA’ charge option, you’ll also be able to use the following charge codes:

Charge option	Description
'OUR'	The sender of the payment pays all fees applied by banks in relation to the payment, including fees applied by intermediary and beneficiary banks.
'BEN'	The beneficiary pays all fees applied by banks in relation to the payment, including any sending bank fees.

Note: Eurozone SEPA, CHAPS and local payments will still need to be sent using the ‘SHA’ charge code.

What this means for you

If you use ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems or third party vendors to produce payment files containing European cross-border payments, you may wish to review and update these files to ensure your preferred charge code is included.

If your European cross-border payment files are submitted without a charge code, the ‘SHA’ code will be automatically applied.

Find out more

If you have any questions, or to obtain an updated Message Implementation Guide (MIG), please contact your local Client Service representative.