Skip to content
ISO 20022 Navigator
Donate

ISO 20022 bank transaction code

PMNT/IRCT/ESCT: Issued SEPA Instant credit transfer

A SEPA Instant Credit Transfer you sent: debited and credited to the payee within seconds, at any hour.

PMNT/IRCT/ESCT at a glance
DomainPMNT Payments
FamilyIRCT Issued Real-Time Credit Transfers
Sub-familyESCT SEPA Credit Transfer
DirectionDebit (money out): CdtDbtInd DBIT
MT940 type with the same meaningNTRF Transfer

What PMNT/IRCT/ESCT means

A bank transaction code classifies an entry in three levels, each narrower than the last. Read together, PMNT/IRCT/ESCT reads Payments › Issued Real-Time Credit Transfers › SEPA Credit Transfer.

  • PMNT (Payments). Every movement of funds between parties, such as transfers, direct debits, cheques, cards and cash.
  • IRCT (Issued Real-Time Credit Transfers). Instant payments the account owner sent.
  • ESCT (SEPA Credit Transfer).

Under the EU Instant Payments Regulation, payment service providers in the euro area have had to offer instant euro transfers, and to check the payee’s name against the IBAN before you send (verification of payee), since October 2025.

Where it sits in a camt.053

The code is in each entry’s BkTxCd/Domn block, the same way in camt.052, camt.053 and camt.054 and in every version from .001.02 to .001.13:

camt.053.001.08 · an entry
<Ntry>
  <Amt Ccy="EUR">1250.00</Amt>
  <CdtDbtInd>DBIT</CdtDbtInd>
  <Sts><Cd>BOOK</Cd></Sts>
  <BkTxCd>
    <Domn>
      <Cd>PMNT</Cd>
      <Fmly>
        <Cd>IRCT</Cd>
        <SubFmlyCd>ESCT</SubFmlyCd>
      </Fmly>
    </Domn>
  </BkTxCd>
  …
</Ntry>

Banks may add their own code in BkTxCd/Prtry, next to the ISO code or instead of it (a German bank’s three-digit business transaction code, for example). Prefer the ISO code for rules that should work across banks.

What the entry carries

Match it by end-to-end id, as for a standard SEPA transfer. An instant payment is final quickly: there is no window in which your bank can still stop it.

In an MT940

An MT940 has no ISO code: each :61: statement line carries a three-letter transaction type after an identification letter. The one with the same meaning is NTRF (Transfer). It is coarser than the ISO code, so several ISO codes share it.

The MT940 Viewer converts MT940 to camt.053, and keeps the :61: type as a proprietary code (BkTxCd/Prtry, issuer SWIFT) rather than guessing an ISO code. All the types are in the MT940 transaction type codes.

Look up PMNT/IRCT/ESCT from a script or an AI agent

Scripts and AI agents get this code’s name, definition, where it sits and the address of this page from GET /api/v1/explain, keyless, or from the explain_code tool of the MCP server (API and MCP docs; add it to Claude, Cursor or VS Code).

REST · curl
curl -s 'https://iso20022-navigator.com/api/v1/explain?code=PMNT%2FIRCT%2FESCT'