A Mail transfer is a payment order in writing sent form the instructing bank to the overseas bank by airmail / When an importing firm wishes to pay a debt to an overseas supplier / it gives a written instruction to its bank to issue a Mail transfer / specifying the full name and address of the exporting firm to whom the payment should be made. The bank in the importing country will instruct its "correspondent " bank in the exporting country to debit its account and pay the exporting firm. Clearly / unlike a banker's draft, a mail transfer is sent by the bank itself to another bank / not by not bank's customer to the overseas supplier. Because Mail transfer involves airmail communication between one bank and another, it is a quicker method of payment that a banker's draft / at no extra cost. However / there is always a possibility that instructions sent by airmail will be delayed or lost in the mail / and there are quicker methods of arranging payment. A quicker methods is by telegraphic transfer / which is the same as Mail transfer / except that instructions are sent by cable or telex instead of by airmail