How to Track and Trace SEPA and SWIFT Payments

Within SEPA there are no correspondent banks in the middle. A standard credit transfer settles in about one business day and an instant transfer in seconds, so in practice there is very little to track — the payment either arrives on schedule or something specific has gone wrong.

If a SEPA payment doesn't arrive, your bank can raise a SEPA inquiry or a recall with the beneficiary bank. Confirm the IBAN and the execution date first, then ask your bank to open the inquiry or recall on your behalf.

International SWIFT payments carry a Unique End-to-end Transaction Reference (UETR) — a 36-character code placed in field 121 of the payment message. It is created once by the sending bank and must be passed unchanged by every intermediary, like a courier tracking number that stays the same from door to door.

Through SWIFT gpi and its Tracker, banks see the payment's real-time status — for example ACSP (accepted, in progress), ACCC (credited to the beneficiary) or RJCT (rejected) — and where it currently sits.

Without a UETR, tracing a payment across several banks is slow guesswork; with it, your bank can pinpoint the exact institution holding the funds in minutes. Always ask your bank for the UETR when you send or chase an international payment.

Step 1 — gather the details: amount, currency, value date, beneficiary IBAN or account number, and the UETR.

Step 2 — contact the sending bank. A payment can only be traced from its origin, so ask the bank that sent it to raise a SWIFT gpi trace on the UETR, or a recall/inquiry for SEPA.

Step 3 — the sending bank queries the correspondent chain via gpi and locates the payment. Step 4 — depending on what it finds, the payment is released, returned, or the missing information is supplied. Keep the payment reference and ask for the case or investigation reference so you can chase it.

A correspondent bank in the middle can hold a payment for AML or sanctions screening, because beneficiary information is missing or mismatched, or for currency-clearing checks.

The money isn't lost — it's parked pending a check or a request for information. This is where the UETR pays off: it shows which bank is holding the payment, so your bank can chase the right party instead of guessing.

US-dollar payments almost always clear through a US correspondent bank on CHIPS or Fedwire. That adds a hop and a timezone, and US banks apply strict sanctions and compliance screening.

The result is that a euro-area-to-euro-area payment sent in USD can be slower and more likely to be queried than the same payment sent in euros. Where possible, pay European beneficiaries in euros over SEPA.

When your bank has no direct relationship with the beneficiary's bank, the payment is relayed through one or more correspondent banks. Each correspondent can levy a handling fee, typically taken out of the transfer as it passes through.

More hops means more potential deductions — which is why an international payment can arrive short even when you have already paid your own bank's fee.

The details-of-charges field decides who bears the cost. OUR means you, the sender, pay all charges including intermediary fees, and the beneficiary receives the full amount — best when an exact sum must arrive.

SHA (shared) means you pay your own bank's fee while intermediary and beneficiary-bank fees are deducted from the transfer, so the beneficiary may receive slightly less; this is the common default. BEN means the beneficiary bears all fees, deducted from the amount sent, so they receive the least.

If a specific amount has to land in full — an invoice, or a deposit being funded — choose OUR.

The authoritative tracker is SWIFT gpi, which you reach through your bank. Many banks now show payment status directly in their app or online banking, and you can simply ask them to check the UETR.

Independent read-only lookup tools also exist; for example uetr.ai lets you paste a UETR to see its latest status. Use them for convenience, but never enter online-banking credentials, account numbers or card details into any third-party tracker — a legitimate tool only ever needs the UETR.