SWIFT
SWIFT
SWIFT
Financial Telecommunications
Introduction to topic
Emergence of SWIFT
Users of SWIFT
Services offered by SWIFT
How does SWIFT makes money?
How does SWIFT works ?
SWIFT address
SWIFT messages
SWIFT -Merits and Demerits
SWIFT is a messaging network that financial
institutions use to securely transmit information and
instructions through a standardized system of codes.
Non profit organisation comprised of member
financial institutions .
Owned by the banks and financial institutions .
Dedicated to managing a global financial messaging
and fund transfer system .
Headquarters are in La Hulpe ,Brussels.
It also acts as a UN sanctioned ISO body for creation
and maintenance of financial messaging standards .
Prior to SWIFT, Telex was the only available means of
message confirmation for international funds transfer.
Telex was hampered by low speed, security concerns, and
a free message format.
Telex did not have a unified system of codes like SWIFT
to name banks and describe transactions. Telex
senders had to describe every transaction in sentences
which were then interpreted and executed by the receiver .
This led to many human errors.
SWIFT system was formed in 1974. Seven major
international banks formed a cooperative society to
operate a global network that would transfer financial
messages in a secure and timely manner.
In the beginning, SWIFT founders designed the network to
facilitate communication about Treasury and correspondent
transactions only.
Banks
Brokerage Institutes and Trading Houses
Securities Dealers
Asset Management Companies
Clearing Houses
Depositories
Exchanges
Corporate Business Houses
Treasury Market Participants and Service Providers
Foreign Exchange and Money Brokers
Applications
Compliance Services
Location/City
Institute code Country code
code
• NWBK • GB • 2L
• Nat West • United • London
Kingdom
Messages are identified by structured configuration.
All messages start with the letter MT.
This is followed by 3 digit number .
1st digit – represents category relating to a particular
financial category .
2nd digit – represents the group denoting that
messages are related to similar parts of a transaction .
3rd digit – denotes the individual message
e.g. - MT 202
Financial institutions transfer ,third party
MT0nn System messages
MT1nn Customer Payments
MT2nn Financial institutions transfer
MT3nn FX,Money Market and Derivatives
MT4nn Collections and cash letters
MT5nn Securities Markets
MT6nn Precious metals and syndications
MT7nn Documentary credits and Guarantees
MT8nn Travellers cheques
MT9nn Cash Management and Customer Status
HOW SWIFT WORKS ?
c
r
e
d
i
t
Swift message
Assume a customer of a Bank of America branch in
New York wants to send money to his friend who
banks at the UniCredit Banca branch in Venice.
The New York customer can walk into his Bank of
America branch with his friend’s account number and
UnicaCredit Banca’s unique SWIFT code for its Venice
branch.
Bank of America will send a payment transfer SWIFT
message to the UniCredit Banca branch over the
secure SWIFT network.
Once Unicredit Banca receives the SWIFT message
about the incoming payment, it will clear and credit
the money to the Italian friend’s account.
a high level of security of money transfers worldwide;
the ability to transfer and receive any sum range;
calculation of funds in any currency;
minimum commission;
the ability to receive or send funds at almost any bank of
the world;
if the system fails, it will compensate for losses.
Disadvantages
transfer can take 7 days;
due to the involvement of several banks in the process, the
system may fail.