SWIFT

SWIFT is the global messaging network that banks use to instruct international payments. Strictly, it doesn’t move money — it carries the standardised instructions between banks, which then settle the funds through correspondent-banking relationships.

How it works

• The payer’s bank sends a SWIFT message to the payee’s bank telling it to pay.
• If the two banks don’t hold accounts with each other, the payment hops through one or more intermediary (correspondent) banks.
• Each hop can add a fee and a day, which is why an international wire can arrive light and slow.

Against SEPA: SEPA is a single-currency, single-zone rail; SWIFT is the any-currency, any-country network that reaches almost everywhere.

Why it matters

SWIFT is how money crosses currencies and borders that no local scheme covers — indispensable, but the least transparent rail. Correspondent fees get deducted mid-flight, FX markups hide in the exchange rate, and the recipient can end up with less than the sender intended. For a business paying internationally at volume, those leaks add up quietly unless someone is watching the rail.

How Fynex does it

Fynex uses SWIFT for payouts that leave the euro zone or the currency, and routes to a cheaper local scheme whenever one reaches the destination — so a payment only takes the correspondent-banking route when it genuinely has to. See SEPA vs SWIFT.