Missing SWIFT payment

itsvix

Hi. I'm looking for some advice regarding a missing SWIFT payment from the US.

I work as a freelancer and receive payment from work via a third party company, Payoneer. The money is transferred from US dollars to my UK Nationwide account. I've used them for about 2 years without issue but in November 2019 the payment of over $1300 didn't arrive.
Payoneer acknowledged receipt of the money and confirmed, as usual, that the transfer had been started. However, it never made it to my account. Nationwide cannot see any evidence of the money making it to them. 
Payoneer sent me a document that has a lot of numbers etc.. on (an MT-103 message). This means nothing to me but they say it proves the transfer was made and it's Nationwide's responsibility to find the money.  I sent it to Nationwide via secure message but they said it really didn't help them and they couldn't use it to trace the money.
Nationwide say that Payoneer's bank should recall the payment and then re-send it. They seem extremely reluctant to do this and are passing the buck time and time again.
I don't know what to do as Payoneer is a US company. I don't know what the legal procedure is. I don't know what the banking procedure is for missing SWIFT payments. I have no idea where I go from here. 
Can anyone give me any idea? 

Ballard

The obvious place for you to start is to look at field 59 of the MT103. This should show your account number and name. If you see something different then that’s something that you need to notify Payoneer. 

Nationwide are correct in saying that they can’t trace the payment. If they can’t see it in a suspense account then there’s nothing more they can do so Payoneer would need to recall and resubmit. 

xylophone

https://www.moneymover.com/about/faqs/what-mt103/

Chino

itsvix said:

Payoneer sent me a document that has a lot of numbers etc.. on (an MT-103 message). This means nothing to me but they say it proves the transfer was made

This blog post states that the exchange of SWIFT messages and the movement of funds are handled separately, so proof that a message was sent instructing Nationwide to credit your account with funds is not proof that payment was made:
SWIFT & SEPA: How international money transfers actually work

itsvix

Thank you Chino and Xylophone - both useful links!

itsvix

Ballard said:

The obvious place for you to start is to look at field 59 of the MT103. This should show your account number and name. If you see something different then that’s something that you need to notify Payoneer. 

Nationwide are correct in saying that they can’t trace the payment. If they can’t see it in a suspense account then there’s nothing more they can do so Payoneer would need to recall and resubmit. 

Thank you Ballard. Everything is as it should be in terms of my details.
Payoneer, seem to be reluctant to recall - why would this be? Surely it's a simple task? 

Ballard

Chino said:

itsvix said:

Payoneer sent me a document that has a lot of numbers etc.. on (an MT-103 message). This means nothing to me but they say it proves the transfer was made

This blog post states that the exchange of SWIFT messages and the movement of funds are handled separately, so proof that a message was sent instructing Nationwide to credit your account with funds is not proof that payment was made:
SWIFT & SEPA: How international money transfers actually work

I’ve had a quick glance at that blog and although it gives an idea it doesn’t seem to be completely accurate. 

For international payments, if there’s a relationship between the two banks then the transaction can be done in parallel (the sending bank will send a message - MT202COV - to their correspondent and another -MT03 - to the beneficiary bank). If there’s no relationship then the sending bank will not message the receiving bank directly. They will instruct their correspondent via an MT103 to send the payment and leave it at that.

If your bank have an MT03 but haven’t acted upon it then they should have a query opened for it.

Regardless, the sending bank are still the route to clear this up. The sender of the funds needs to contact them and tell them that you are claiming non-receipt and they should tale it up from there.