International business still relies on a messaging backbone created half a century ago. SWIFT—the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication—does not hold or move funds itself. Instead it provides a secure, standardised language that more than 11 000 institutions use to tell one another which account to credit, how much, and why. Grasping the essentials of that language will save you time, reduce costs, and help you trace a payment when something goes wrong.
How a SWIFT transfer actually works
- Initiation. You submit instructions to your bank—online, in branch or via API. The order must include the beneficiary’s name, account number or IBAN, bank name and address, and that bank’s eight- or eleven-character SWIFT/BIC code.
- Message creation. Your bank packages the data into a standard format, most often an MT103 (single customer transfer).
- Secure transmission. The MT103 travels through SWIFT’s private network to the beneficiary’s bank or, if the two banks lack a direct relationship, through one or more correspondent banks that maintain reciprocal accounts.
- Clearing and settlement. Each bank in the chain debits or credits its internal ledgers, applying currency conversion or compliance checks as needed.
- Final credit. Funds appear in the recipient’s account; the beneficiary bank confirms completion via an MT910 or internal notice.
Information you must provide
• Correct SWIFT/BIC of the recipient bank
• Beneficiary’s full legal name and address
• Account number or IBAN in local format
• Transfer currency and amount
• Purpose of payment, especially for high-value or regulated corridors
• Fee arrangement—SHA (shared), OUR (sender pays all) or BEN (beneficiary pays)
One missing field can push a transfer into manual repair, adding both time and cost.
How long it takes
Traditional advice was “two to five business days,” but the spread is narrowing. A 2025 SWIFT report notes that nearly 60 percent of gpi-enabled transfers now credit within thirty minutes. Speed depends on the number of correspondent banks, local clearing cut-off times and any compliance reviews triggered by the data.
What it costs
Charges arrive in three layers.
• Your bank’s outgoing fee—a flat amount or tiered by value.
• Correspondent handling fees—each intermediary may deduct a margin from the principal unless you chose OUR.
• FX spread—if currencies change en route, the converting bank embeds its own margin.
Comparing total landed cost before pressing Send is essential; two banks quoting the same outward fee can diverge widely once hidden spreads appear.
Tracking a payment
SWIFT’s gpi service attaches a unique end-to-end identifier visible to both sender and receiver. You can monitor status in near-real-time—“received,” “in process,” “credited”—and see which bank currently holds the funds. If your bank is not yet on gpi, you can still request a trace: the original MT103 reference prompts intermediaries to report where the payment sits.
Common causes of delay
• Typos in the beneficiary’s name or account number
• Incomplete purpose-of-payment codes for high-regulation destinations
• Exceeding local anti-money-laundering thresholds, triggering manual review
• Time-zone gaps that push processing into the next business day
Double-checking beneficiary details and submitting before local cut-off times are the simplest ways to avoid slowdowns.
Alternatives and when to use them
For euro transfers inside SEPA, an IBAN-only payment settles far faster and cheaper than SWIFT. Domestic instant-payment schemes such as FedNow (US) or Pix (Brazil) beat SWIFT on speed and cost for in-country moves. Card-network push payments solve small-ticket consumer payouts almost instantly. Yet none of these match SWIFT’s global reach; when you need to send money from Estonia to Ethiopia or Canada to Cambodia, SWIFT remains the universal option.
Practical tips for hassle-free transfers
• Maintain a master list of verified beneficiary details with checksum validation for IBANs.
• Use OUR when the beneficiary requires an exact landing amount—for example, paying tuition or property closings.
• Request gpi tracking from your bank; it costs little and halves the time spent chasing support lines.
• Keep supporting documents (invoices, contracts) ready; compliance teams may ask for proof of commercial purpose on large values.
• Schedule high-value wires early in the business day to catch same-day clearing windows in downstream markets.
Master the basics and a SWIFT transfer becomes routine rather than arcane. You will know which fields matter, how long funds should take, and what steps to trigger when a payment strays off course—knowledge that keeps global business moving smoothly and confidently.