To make a SWIFT payment, you need the following information:
Name of the payee
Payee’s address
Name and address of the payee’s preferred bank
SWIFT code/BIC of the bank
Payee’s account number
While SWIFT’s reach is expansive, it doesn’t cover the entire globe. When sending money with SWIFT, there are two scenarios that you may encounter:
The banks already have an established relationship
The banks do not already have an established relationship
When the banks already have an established relationship, there may be a quicker turnaround time for the money transfer. For example, a payer’s bank will send a SWIFT message with payment instructions to the payee’s bank. Then the payer’s bank will take the money out of his account and credit the payee’s bank, and soon after, that money will arrive in the payee’s personal account.
However, when the banks do not have an established relationship, they use an intermediary bank to facilitate the money transfer. A payer’s bank will debit the payer’s account by the amount they’re sending, then the bank will ask the intermediary to debit their overall commercial account by the same amount and credit the payee’s bank’s commercial account.
The intermediary bank charges a fee for this service and transfers the remaining amount to the payee’s personal bank account.
How much does SWIFT cost?
SWIFT payments can vary considerably in cost. First, SWIFT is a cooperative and is owned by members, who are categorised into different sections based on their level of ownership. Members pay a one-time fee plus annual fees dependent on membership class.
The SWIFT messaging system itself charges users depending on the type of message and length. These costs vary depending on the bank’s volume of SWIFT messages.
Transfer times for SWIFT payments
In general, a SWIFT payment takes one to four business days to show up in the receiving bank account and the time taken varies depending on bank relationships, locations, and time of year.
