Euro Pacific Bank

Incoming Wire Transfer Guidelines

In an effort to continually improve your banking experience and adapt to the ever-changing regulatory environment, we urge you to follow these best practices to ensure that INCOMING wires are received successfully:

  1. No PO Box addresses – Wires from bank accounts associated with a PO Boxes will be rejected by our correspondent banking network. **VERY IMPORTANT**
  2. Add Economic Purpose – All incoming wires should include the economic purpose of the payment in the SWIFT field 70 (also known as the “Message to Beneficiary” or Reference/Information field). Wires that do not state the economic purpose will be returned by our correspondent banking network. **VERY IMPORTANT**
  3. Is an Intermediary Bank necessary?
    • If for any reason you cannot specify our Intermediary Bank, you may omit our Intermediary Bank, and thereby acknowledge that the sending bank must retrieve the correct intermediary route from the SWIFT system. By omitting our Intermediary Bank, you risk that your funds are routed to an incorrect or outdated Intermediary Bank. We accept no liability if the wire transfer does not arrive successfully for any reason.
    • If your EPB wire transfer instruction does not include an Intermediary Bank, one will not be required.
  4. Do I have an IBAN? Currently, Puerto Rico does not participate in the IBAN (International Bank Account Number) standard. Therefore, Euro Pacific Bank clients do not have IBANs and should revert to their standard MT103 wiring instructions. Learn more here.
  5. When will I receive my wire transfer? Arrival of your funds depend on the processing time of the sending bank and the intermediary bank(s) in the payment chain. As soon as the funds arrive, we will update your Online Banking recent transactions. Please monitor your transactions before inquiring about the status of your wire transfer.
  6. How much will we charge for the incoming wire? We credit the exact amount our corresponding bank receives, followed by our incoming wire fee. A full list of fees are published here. We accept no liability if an intermediary bank in the payment chain charges a transfer fee.
  7. How do I know where my funds are during transit? Unfortunately, if your funds have not arrived, we have no way of knowing its status. To know exactly where your funds are within the banking channel, please request your sending bank to perform a wire trace.
  8. Wire Repair Fees – A wire repair fee will be assessed if an incoming wire transfer is not executed in proper MT103 format, meaning information is missing, misplaced, incorrect, or a combination. You are responsible for monitoring your Online Banking transactions, and if you are assessed a wire repair fee, that you read the reason and rectify the formatting issue with the sending bank for your future transfers.

We hope this helps and if you encounter wiring issues, please contact our Client Services team by creating a case inside your eBanking Support Center or calling +1-888-527-4041.