To do a SWIFT transfer, you collect the recipient’s bank details, submit an international wire through your bank’s online portal, mobile app, or a branch, choose who pays the fees, and confirm the payment. The message travels through the SWIFT network to the recipient’s bank, which credits their account. Most transfers reach the destination bank within an hour, though the money can take a few business days to land in the recipient’s account depending on intermediaries, cut-off times, and compliance checks.
Getting the transfer right depends almost entirely on the accuracy of the information you enter. Small errors cost real money in tracing fees and can delay the payment by weeks.
What You Need Before You Start
Ask the recipient to pull their bank’s international incoming wire instructions, usually available on a statement or in online banking. Enter every character exactly as provided.
Recipient and Bank Details
You need the recipient’s full legal name exactly as it appears on their account, along with their complete address. A nickname or abbreviation can trigger a compliance flag that delays or rejects the payment. You also need the full legal name and branch address of the recipient’s bank, because large institutions have dozens of branches and the payment must reach the specific one holding the account.
BIC/SWIFT Code
The Business Identifier Code (BIC), often called the SWIFT code, is an 8- or 11-character alphanumeric string.1Swift. Business Identifier Code (BIC) The first eight characters identify the bank, its country, and its city. When an 11-character version is used, the last three pinpoint a specific branch. Every bank on the SWIFT network has one, and there is no substitute.
Account Number, IBAN, or Country-Specific Code
Beyond the BIC, many countries require a national account identifier. The most common is the International Bank Account Number (IBAN), a standardized format that bundles the country code, check digits, and domestic account number into one string.2Swift. International Bank Account Number (IBAN) IBANs are mandatory across Europe and are also required in parts of the Middle East, North Africa, Brazil, Pakistan, and elsewhere. Roughly 80 countries use them. If the recipient’s bank requires an IBAN and you send only a raw account number, the transfer will almost certainly bounce.
Some countries use different routing systems alongside or instead of the IBAN:
- India requires an 11-character Indian Financial System Code (IFSC) identifying the specific bank branch.
- Canada uses a 3-digit financial institution number plus a 5-digit branch transit number, both needed alongside the SWIFT code.
- Australia requires a 6-digit Bank State Branch (BSB) code that identifies the individual branch.
- Mexico uses an 18-digit CLABE number that combines the bank code, branch code, account number, and a check digit.
A single transposed digit can send money to the wrong account, and recovering misdirected funds is neither fast nor guaranteed.
How to Submit the Transfer
You have three main channels. The information required is the same across all of them; the difference is convenience, cost, and transfer limits.
Online Banking
Most banks offer an international wire option inside their online portal. Navigate to the wire transfer section, choose the international option, and fill in the recipient’s name, address, BIC, account number or IBAN, the transfer amount, and the currency. You will also select a fee instruction code. Expect multi-factor authentication before the request is processed. Some banks impose lower daily limits on online wires than on in-person ones, and may require a registered security device for larger amounts.
Mobile Banking
Mobile apps follow the same workflow in a tighter interface. The required fields are identical. Watch out for autocorrect on a phone; it can silently alter account numbers or addresses. Verify every field against the recipient’s original instructions before submitting.
In-Person at a Branch
For a large transfer, or when you want a banker to review the details, visit a branch. Bring a government-issued photo ID and the recipient’s wire instructions.3Chase Bank. Wire Transfer FAQs After you confirm and sign, you receive a receipt with a reference number or SWIFT copy that serves as proof the transfer was initiated. Keep it. You will need that reference if the payment has to be traced.
Choosing Who Pays the Fees
The wire form asks who covers the fees. This is set by a three-letter code, and the choice affects how much the recipient actually receives.
- OUR: You pay all transfer fees, including intermediary charges. The recipient gets the full amount. Most expensive for you, simplest for them, and the right choice when paying an invoice for a specific amount.
- SHA (Shared): You pay your bank’s outgoing fee; the recipient absorbs any intermediary or receiving bank charges deducted along the way. This is the most common default.
- BEN (Beneficiary): The recipient pays all fees. Your bank deducts its outgoing fee and all intermediary charges from the amount before sending it. The recipient gets whatever is left.
On a $5,000 transfer with SHA, the recipient might receive $4,950 or $4,970 after intermediary deductions. With OUR, they receive the full $5,000 but you pay more upfront. When you owe a specific dollar amount to a vendor, OUR is the safer bet.
What It Costs
Total cost is rarely obvious from the fee schedule your bank shows you.
Outgoing Wire Fee
Your bank charges a flat fee to initiate the wire. At major U.S. banks, this typically falls between $0 and $50 for online transfers, and up to $85 for in-branch wires or wires sent in U.S. dollars. Several banks waive the fee when you send in a foreign currency. Premium or high-balance accounts sometimes qualify for reduced or waived fees.
Intermediary Bank Fees
When your bank has no direct correspondent relationship with the recipient’s bank, the payment is routed through one or more intermediaries. Each typically deducts between $15 and $50 unless you selected OUR. You will not always know in advance how many intermediaries touch the payment, which makes total cost unpredictable. Transfers between major currency corridors, like U.S. to U.K., often pass through fewer hops than transfers to smaller markets.
Exchange Rate Markup
If the transfer involves a currency conversion, the bank applies its own exchange rate rather than the mid-market rate you would see on Google. The difference is where banks make significant profit. Markups typically range from 2% to 5% of the transfer value depending on the currency pair and the bank. On a $10,000 transfer, that is $200 to $500 that never appears as a line-item fee. This is consistently the most expensive part of a SWIFT transfer and the piece most people overlook.
Receiving Bank Fee
The recipient’s bank may also charge for processing the incoming wire. Fees vary by institution and country. Under SHA or BEN, this comes out of the transferred amount.
How Long It Takes and How to Track It
According to SWIFT, 90% of payments sent over the network reach the destination bank within an hour. Only about 43% land in the end customer’s account within an hour.4Swift. How Long Do Swift Transfers Take? The gap comes from manual processing at the receiving end, local market practices, regulatory holds, and time zone differences.
Transfers submitted after your bank’s daily cut-off, often around 2:00 PM or 4:00 PM local time, will not be processed until the next business day. Public holidays in either country add further delay. Payments involving less common currencies or multiple intermediary hops take the longest.
SWIFT gpi Tracking
SWIFT’s global payments innovation (gpi) service assigns each transfer a Unique End-to-End Transaction Reference (UETR) that enables real-time tracking from initiation to final credit.5Swift. Swift GPI If your bank participates, you can see where the payment sits at each stage, how long each bank held it, and what fees were deducted. If a payment stalls, gpi shows which bank is holding it up. Ask your bank whether they support gpi before you send; most major banks do, but not all institutions have adopted it.
If Something Goes Wrong
International wire transfers from U.S. banks qualify as remittance transfers under federal Regulation E, which gives you specific protections.6Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 1005.30 Remittance Transfer Definitions
30-Minute Cancellation Window
You can cancel a SWIFT transfer and get a full refund, including all fees and taxes, if you contact your bank within 30 minutes of making the payment.7eCFR. 12 CFR 1005.34 – Procedures for Cancellation and Refund of Remittance Transfers The refund must be issued within three business days. Two conditions apply: the funds cannot have already been picked up or deposited into the recipient’s account, and your request must include enough information for the bank to identify you and the transfer. Some banks offer longer windows voluntarily; 30 minutes is the federal minimum. This right applies regardless of the bank’s normal business hours, so even after the branch closes, the bank must provide a way to submit the cancellation, typically by phone.
Error Resolution
If the wrong amount was sent, the money went to the wrong account, or the transfer was not delivered, you can file a notice of error with your bank. The bank has 90 days to investigate and must report its findings within three business days of completing the investigation.8eCFR. 12 CFR 1005.33 – Procedures for Resolving Errors These protections apply to transfers over $15 sent to a recipient in a foreign country.
Compliance Holds and Reporting
Every SWIFT transfer through a U.S. bank is screened against the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions lists, including the Specially Designated Nationals list. If any party matches, the bank may block or reject the payment. Blocked transfers are frozen in an interest-bearing account and reported to OFAC within 10 business days, and the funds stay there until OFAC authorizes their release, which can take months.9Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Blocking and Rejecting Transactions False positives happen when a recipient shares a name with someone on the list; including the full legal name and complete address helps screening resolve faster.
Financial institutions must file a Currency Transaction Report for any transaction exceeding $10,000 in a single day.10FinCEN.gov. The Bank Secrecy Act The bank handles the filing automatically, and it does not mean you have done anything wrong. Deliberately splitting a transfer into amounts below $10,000 to avoid the report is a federal crime called structuring.
Separately, if you hold financial accounts outside the United States with an aggregate value exceeding $10,000 at any point during the calendar year, you must file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) using FinCEN Form 114.11Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Report Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts The SWIFT transfer itself does not trigger FBAR, but the foreign account you are sending to might, depending on its balance. This catches people off guard, especially those sending money to their own accounts abroad.