Do you use the ‘Instruction to bank’ fields in payments?

Last updated: 7 August 2024

As payment infrastructures around the world continue to undergo modernisation, we’d like to remind you about some best practices to help make sure your payment instructions are sent successfully.

For payments that need ‘Instruction to bank’ details

The instruction to bank section allows you to provide specific information to different financial institutions involved in completing payment settlement.

What to keep in mind:

Make sure to use an individual codeword only once.
To continue entering information from a previous line, just continue typing in the next line without repeating the codeword or adding forward slashes (/) in front.
Type forward slash (/) in a new line only to select a different codeword. Continue typing in the next line again without repeating the codeword.

Here are the Instruction to bank codewords available in HSBCnet:

Codeword	Description
/ACC/	Instructions are for the account with institution, meaning the beneficiary bank.
/INS/	Instructing institution which instructed the sender to execute the transaction. This codeword should not be applicable to your payments unless they’re being sent from a financial institution. Important note: in line with the industry-wide adoption of the ISO 20022 standard, the /INS/ code will no longer be supported in the future.
/INT/	Instructions are for the intermediary institution if you specified one.
/REC/	Instructions are for the receiver of your payment instruction, meaning HSBC Group.
/RTGS/	Transaction should be settled via real time gross settlement. Only applicable when you are paying domestically to a beneficiary bank that is not part of HSBC Group.

Find out more

To discover more best practices for international payments, review the ‘Best practices for creating international payments’ page in HSBCnet’s User Guides portal.

If you have further questions, please contact your local HSBCnet Support Centre.