How to find a swift message in the system. What is a bank SWIFT code: meaning, structure and examples of use
What is a Swift money transfer? The international payment system "Swift" (Swift) is a payment system of an international level. In cases where there is a need to make a payment to another country, it will be convenient to use its services. It is believed that it is more reliable and less costly than other similar systems of international payments. If necessary, using the SWIFT system, individuals can pay for hotels or studies, and organizations or enterprises can pay for goods or services. Almost anyone can be a sender or a recipient of funds:
- individual;
- business firm;
- organization;
- other customers.
She has her competitors. These are well-known companies: MoneyGram, Western Union, Unistream and others. For transfers of amounts less than ten thousand dollars, SWIFT takes half as much. And for those that exceed this amount - three times cheaper. This system is used both for ordinary money transfers and for bank payments.
What is she
This is an abbreviation made in the first letters of the English name (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, SWIFT). In Russian, this means "Community of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications."
How does it differ from competitors?
- When transferring money, it is allowed to choose the currency in which the payment will be received. If necessary, you can give an order to purchase the desired currency.
- An important feature is that the transfer is carried out not to the name of the recipient, but to a specific bank account. That is, it is not necessary to cash out the money received upon receipt. They can be stored in a bank account for a certain time.
- The system has earned a high reputation in the banking world. It was not only qualitatively designed from the very beginning, but also in practice proved excellent quality, high reliability of its work. In addition, transactions in this system are considered to be reliably protected from hacking.
- There are no restrictions on the amounts transferred. Of course, this only takes place in cases where it does not violate the requirements of the law.
The main operations center in Europe is located in Belgium. There are plans to open another such center. The company that operates the system operates in Brussels and is subject to Belgian law.
The work proceeds as follows. Suppose one company plans to make another payment. To do this, she turns to her bank, which will interact directly with the payment system. Before sending through a special terminal, the transaction message will be transmitted to the counterparty bank, which will receive it, decrypt it and execute it. In a similar way, statements are transmitted and it turns out what state the current outstanding payments are in.
For the use of SWIFT are charged:
- annual maintenance fee;
- commission for one-time payments.
Each of ten thousand participants has a unique SWIFT code (in one case it consists of eight, in others it consists of eleven characters, which can be either letters or numbers). In order to make a Swift bank transfer in this way, you only need to know the IBAN code of the recipient. It includes the designation of the country, bank, bank branch, verification symbols and cannot include more than 34 characters.
History
Swift translation - what is it? The system was founded back in 1973. At its origins stood 239 banks from 15 countries. They became co-founders of SWIFT. Now the company belongs to about nine thousand banks from 209 countries (data for 2010).
Advantages and disadvantages of translations in this system
Like all systems, SWIFT has its advantages and disadvantages. Let's consider them in more detail. Let's start by looking at the positives.
- Translations are notable for their high execution speed. The minimum transfer time in some cases can be no more than one minute. However, when transferring anywhere in the world, such situations are also possible when money is transferred over a period of one to three days.
- The system itself does not establish any restrictions on the amount of transfer. However, if the legislation of a particular country sets any limits, then SWIFT will take this into account.
- Not only the technical, but also the organization of the delivery of funds is highly reliable and secure.
- Almost any currency in which the money will be received can be selected. The number of available currencies is quite large.
- Tariffs are much lower than competitors.
- This payment system is very popular all over the world. In particular, this allows you to transfer funds anywhere in the world.
- When sending money, there is no need to have your own bank account.
There is only one significant drawback. The fact is that two or more banks can participate in the transfer of money.
Transferring money between distant points of the planet, sometimes it may be necessary to use the services of several banks. When passing through a shipment, each of them will take some time, which can make the process of transferring money longer.
Some statistics
In order to better understand the role of the SWIFT system, it makes sense to familiarize yourself with certain figures that characterize it:
- During the calendar day, about eight billion payments are transferred throughout the planet. If summed up, the total result will be an amount equivalent to six trillion US dollars.
- SWIFT clients are located in more than two hundred countries of the world.
- If we talk about the number of banks that are covered by the system, then their number is more than six thousand.
Opportunities
In what cases can I use the system:
- in the case when they want to transfer money to relatives or friends;
- if a swift is needed to pay for purchased goods, work or services;
- there was a need to transfer a large amount with minimal cost and with high reliability;
- in order to make a transfer, it is not planned to open a bank account in advance.
How to use
What needs to be done in order to send the translation yourself using the services of the translation system discussed in the article? Here is the instruction:
Manual processing
This system works quickly and efficiently. However, in rare cases, difficulties may arise. In such situations, payments are transferred to manual processing. This usually occurs in one of the following cases.
- Errors in the IBAN code.
- A rather complicated payment route.
- The presence of redundant information in the payment.
- When there was no information about the correspondent bank when making the transfer.
In order not to encounter these difficulties, you must carefully indicate all the necessary details when sending a payment.
Conclusion
This system is currently undergoing a period of rapid development. The combination of quality and reliability, relatively low prices make it profitable to use it both for individuals and for various companies and organizations.
Today, the SWIFT international payment system is the most reliable way of financial communications with anywhere in the world. But for this, it is necessary to use the payment details correctly, and clearly understand what the bank’s SWIFT code is.
Swift code is a unique identifier of a member of the SWIFT system (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Communications Channels). To make an international money transfer, the sender and receiver codes are required. The terms SWIFT-BIC (Bank Identifier Codes), SWIFT ID and BIC code are also used.
SWIFT payment system was founded in 1973 for the purpose of standardization and acceleration of international payments between banking institutions, commercial organizations and private individuals. At the beginning of 2016, about 100,000 banking and commercial structures from 209 countries were registered in the system.
BIC code structure
So what is a bank swift code? This is an alphanumeric combination from 8 to 11 characters long, which includes the following required elements: bank identifier according to ISO 9362 specification and a two-letter country code determined by ISO 3166. Only Latin capital letters are used, including the name and surname of the sender and recipient!
Purpose of character groups:
BBBB - A unique four-character code to identify the participant in the payment system. It is an abbreviation for the English brand name. A few examples of Swift abbreviations for banks in the Russian Federation (highlighted in red):
CC is a two-character Latin abbreviation of a country name, according to the ISO 3166 standard. Examples of names and SWIFT codes: RU - Russia, US - USA, DE - Germany, KZ - Kazakhstan.
The identifier of the place of receipt allows you to uniquely identify banking institutions with the same names, but from different countries. So in the figure above, different Alfa Banks have different resulting reductions. A complete list of country abbreviations can be found on the official page of the ISO 9362 standard.
LL - alphanumeric identifier of the territorial location of a bank or organization within the state. Inactive organizations are indicated by two units; for testing or debugging SWIFT connections, LL consists of two zeros.
DDD is an optional element representing a code of a bank branch. If the head office code is present in the system, the value is not set, and for international payments, XXX is indicated in the corresponding field. This code is also often used for cross-border payments within the settlement network of the Bank of the Russian Federation or as part of interstate agreements, such as the Customs Union.
A complete directory of 11-character identification codes of SWIFT participants for domestic and international payments (SWIFT BIC) is on the official website of the Bank of Russia and the National Association "ROSSSWIFT".
The SWIFT-code of any financial institution is not considered closed (or secret) information and is freely available. On the official website of any bank in the "Details" section it can be recognized (and decrypted) by anyone.
In the case of regular SWIFT transfers with a permanent sender and recipient, as well as if a payment from abroad was made by a legal entity, the bank may require additional documents to confirm the presence or absence of signs of commercial activity. Also, the bank that accepts the transfer is not a tax agent of the recipient and is not responsible for possible tax evasion and other violations of the law.
Money transfers to the countries of the European Union and the European Economic Area (ES / EEZ)
According to EU Directive No. 2560/2001, from January 1, 2007, for international payments to be made by private individuals, it may happen that the bank’s SWIFT code is not enough and it will be necessary to additionally indicate the beneficiary’s personal code IBAN (International Bank Account Number) . This procedure is also mandatory in the case of bank transfers from the EU zone beyond its borders.
Currently, calculations using IBAN are supported by 45 countries, including outside the Eurozone: Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova and others. An exception is made only for the Russian Federation - specifying the IBAN of the recipient is not yet required.
IBAN contains no more than 34 uppercase English letters and numbers. Example of full details:
- DE - country identifier of the beneficiary's bank according to ISO 3166-1 alpha-2, in this case Germany;
- 89 - calculated according to ISO 7064 unique control number IBAN;
- 3704 - The first 4 digits of the international banking code BIC. BIC codes on the Bank of Russia website are used only for transfers within the Russian Federation !!;
- the remaining characters are the client's bank account number in the country of receipt.
It should be noted that formally registering banks in the SWIFT system is voluntary, but today the use of the Swift code is a necessary requirement for conducting international settlements, speeding up the processes of sending / receiving information and money, as well as improving the security of any financial transactions.
Despite the fact that most users are accustomed to such international money transfers as Western Union, MoneyGram and others, when sending large amounts, the SWIFT system is more profitable.
What are SWIFT payments?
In 1973, 239 banks from 15 countries founded the Community of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (the English abbreviation - SWIFT). Today it unites more than 11,000 organizations from two hundred countries. All participants in financial transactions are assigned a unique code: for banks - BIC or ID, for individuals / legal entities - IBAN. When making any operation, it is necessary to indicate the code of the bank and the recipient.
Advantages and disadvantages of SWIFT
The main advantage is accessibility in many countries. Correspondent banks are involved in the work, which allows you to get money from a bank that is not a member of the SWIFT system. Among the other advantages, the following are distinguished:
- large selection of currencies;
- there are no restrictions on the amount (in some cases, the operation must be consistent with currency legislation);
- high speed of operation (average delivery time - 20 minutes);
- guaranteed timely delivery;
- moderate commissions for large money transfers.
Among the minuses are monitoring payments by the US Department of State, as well as the need to provide the bank with a specific set of documents.
SWIFT payment allows you to transfer money to individuals or companies abroad:
- payments for goods, services;
- payment for training, treatment;
- transfer funds to relatives and much more.
How does SWIFT PrivatBank work?
Swift transfers should not be related to commercial / investment activities.
According to Ukrainian law, there are a number of restrictions for operations:
- without documentary evidence, a currency transfer should not exceed 15,000 hryvnias per one banking day.
- the transfer of foreign currency by individuals by non-residents must be confirmed by a document on the source of the currency.
- ukrainians can transfer foreign currency to a personal foreign account with an individual NBU license.
Important ! You can familiarize yourself with the rules / restrictions in more detail on the Privat website:https://conditions-and-rules.privatbank.ua/main/view-content-144/?lang\u003den
PrivatBank SWIFT transfer fees
- Payment receipt:
Cash receipts:
- to the card / account of an individual - 0%;
- to the card for payments - 0.5%.
Cashing out:
- from a card / account of an individual - 1%;
- from the card for payments - 0%.
- Tariffs for departure:
- within the country - 5% of the total amount + 12 US dollars *;
- abroad - 0.5% of the total amount (at least five hryvnias, but not more than 500 US dollars) + 12 US dollars *
* hryvnia at the current rate of the NBU.
How to send a SWIFT transfer?
Via Privat24 (self-filling out the form):
- “All services”\u003e “Transfers”\u003e “SWIFT payments”\u003e “New”.
- From the drop-down list, select the desired country, currency, enter the amount.
- Fill out the sending form:
- Bank SWIFT code (consists of eight to eleven characters);
- beneficiary account / IBAN code;
- recipient Name:
- physical person - full name;
- legal entity - company name.
- address of the recipient;
- purpose of payment (select an existing type from the drop-down list or select "Other", enter the necessary data).
Important ! If the payment amount exceeds the equivalent of UAH 15,000, you will need to attach a scanned copy of supporting documents.
- enter the required amount. When the currency of receipt is US dollars and the recipient must receive the full amount, check the box next to "Guarantee of receipt of the full amount." Commissions of all banks participating in the operation will be included.
- choose a card. If you have several cards (dollar and hryvnia), the operation can be carried out from both: the payment amount is foreign currency, the commission payment is hryvnia.
- confirm that this transaction is not related to business / investment.
- confirm the action with the sms code that came to your mobile.
Sending a payment through Privat24 (simplified form):
- The menu "All services"\u003e "Transfers"\u003e "SWIFT payments"\u003e "New".
- From the drop-down list, select the country, currency, enter the amount.
- In the window that opens, you will see all possible sending methods. Choose a SWIFT system.
- Enter the details of the recipient in one of two ways:
- if you have the details in a text electronic document, just copy and paste the data;
- if you have a scanned copy of the document with the details - attach the file.
- non-resident individuals will need to attach scanned documents about the source of the currency. Documents in a foreign language (except Russian) are translated into Ukrainian, and are endorsed by a translation agency.
- After entering the necessary data, click "Next", select a card / account. When the currency of receipt is US dollars and the recipient must receive the full amount, check the box next to "Guarantee of receipt of the full amount." Commissions of all banks participating in the operation will be included.
- Confirm the transfer using the sms code received on your mobile
Receiving SWIFT Transfer
To receive a payment, you need to find out your IBAN code in one of three ways:
- ATM. My Details\u003e Get Details.
- Terminal."My details"\u003e "My details"\u003e "Get details for replenishment of the card."
- Privat24. "All Services"\u003e "Info"\u003e "My Details". Select card number\u003e replenishment with SWIFT payment\u003e "Get details".
- Report the received IBAN code to the sender.
In the mobile application:
Recently, there has been a lot of talk about the SWIFT system and that even a whole country can be disconnected from this system as a sanction measure. Let's figure it out what is SWIFT.
Swift Is an abbreviation for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Community of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications) is an international interbank system for transmitting information and making payments. At its core, it is a system in which banks around the world exchange information and payment data. Swift is used by thousands of financial institutions around the world. Annually, 2.5 billion payment orders pass through the system. Based in Brussels.
How does SWIFT work?
When one bank needs to send a payment to another bank, it encrypts a special message using the SWIFT system and sends it to its counterparty. That, in turn, decrypts it and applies. Similarly, you can transfer statements of correspondent accounts and carry out investigations on outstanding payments. In simple words, SWIFT just forwards from bank to bank messages about who and how much to write off funds from each other on behalf of customers, and also controls that these messages are not fraudulent.
Main sWIFT advantage - security of information transmitted between banks. SWIFT also has the advantage that banks do not have to bother about how the chain of mutual write-offs and crediting of funds will go. It is enough to indicate the sender and the recipient, the system will automatically determine the optimal and shortest chain of settlements. Of course, this is not free for banks - the cost is made up of annual maintenance and commission for each payment.
By the way, payments on our bank cards do not go through the SWIFT system.
Those who at least once had to deal with sending money abroad or receiving funds from other countries inevitably had questions: which system is better, and in general what it is - SWIFT transfer. For those planning to work, study, conduct business abroad, it is necessary to know the answer to the latter - at the moment there are simply no worthy alternatives to the S.W.I.F.T system in the world.
System S.W.I.F.T - functions, history, modern level
When it comes to transferring money to another country, one immediately recalls the familiar, thanks to intrusive advertising, but no less effective and fast Western Union and similar MoneyGram, Anelic and others. Those who seriously worked on this issue will be called, except instant transfer systems, at least three ways:
- Card-to-card transfers:
- Sending funds using electronic payment systems such as Webmoney, PerfectMoney, Neteller, etc.
- International transfers in the SWIFT system.
At the same time, instant transfers are only good for sending to a private person, card transfers have many restrictions in different countries, there is no single standard for electronic systems, and their distribution is often limited to territories of countries or regions.
SWIFT is the only translation system that is free from all these shortcomings. Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (S.W.I.F.T) - The Community of Worldwide Interbank Financial - Telecommunications is not a separate company, production or financial group. This is a real community, designed to effectively solve the problems facing its members to optimize information flows.
That was how it was created in 1973, when the largest banks faced with particular acuteness the question of accelerating data exchange, which was supposed to satisfy the business needs for the speed of information transfer and, most importantly, money transfers. Then in Belgium (the headquarters of the organization and today operates in Brussels), representatives of more than 200 largest banks of the Old and New World gathered to solve the problem.
Such an undertaking was doomed to success. The correctness of the chosen direction and the methods and technologies used is evidenced by the connection to the system more 10 thousand major financial institutions from more than 220 countries . More than one million transactions are carried out daily in the system.
SWIFT, first of all, is a system of quick and secure exchange of information messages. Since today in the world cash flows are information flows, the system copes well with this function - international address transfer of funds.
Thanks to the security, reliability and speed of data and message transfer, not only banks become customers of the system. The independent participants are exchanges, insurance agencies, brokerage companies, hedge funds, etc.
Features of SWIFT translations
Since non-cash money transfers today have turned into simple information messages that the owner of one account intends to transfer a certain amount of the money equivalent recorded on it to the owner of another account, it was necessary to formulate a set of rules to ensure reliability and security.
The main one relates to the provision of information about the recipient.
What you need to send a SWIFT transfer
Transfers in the system are made exclusively to bank accounts. Accordingly, the following data set is required (filled by the sender):
- The unique code of the receiving bank in the SWIFT system (BIK acts as an analogue in the Russian banking system). This information allows you to uniquely identify in the electronic communications system the financial institution to which the message is sent.
How SWIFT code is decrypted
- Name of beneficiary bank - corresponding to international registries or agreements.
- Full name (for individuals) or full name of the company (for legal entities) of the recipient.
- Beneficiary's account number for crediting funds. It is provided in the format accepted in the recipient's banking system or in the form of an international code (IBAN).
- Amount and currency of transfer
Important! All data in the SWIFT system are in English only. There is not a single exception to this rule, even if the swift is from Russia to Belarus or from Portugal to Brazil, where Portuguese is the official language.
Most often, all the necessary information is provided by the official website of the bank.
SWIFT codes of Sberbank of Russia
Here are the SWIFT codes of Sberbank divisions on the official website
All data should be given without errors. Otherwise, the translation processing may slow down significantly, especially if several intermediaries take part in the chain (for example, when counterparty banks are not participants in the system). A more unpleasant situation is also possible - the payment will be lost and its search will cost the correspondent a serious amount.
If the transfer currency and the national currency in the recipient country do not match, the transfer is carried out with the participation of the correspondent bank. In this case, the SWIFT code and the name of this financial institution are added to the list of information necessary for the transfer of media.
The design features include the fact that the system allows you to withdraw a payment or return it for adjustment, but the loss of time and money will be very noticeable. Such actions are available only until the funds are not issued to the recipient.
Transfer currency
There are no current restrictions on the currencies used in the system. This SWIFT compares favorably with all other transfer systems operating either in national currencies or in the most common world (most often in dollars and euros).
SWIFT international transfer can use any currency on the side of the sender and receiver. In fact, during its execution, along with the transfer, an order is made to exchange the sender’s currency with the recipient’s currency.
Translation terms
The transit time of an informational message in the system, as a rule, does not exceed 20 minutes. Funds are not received to the recipient's account during this time only due to multiple confirmation of receipt of messages between the participants in the system (especially if the route includes intermediary banks and correspondent banks). In addition, the procedure for crediting funds to end-user accounts is determined by the internal regulations of the beneficiary's bank.
As a result, it takes 1 to 5 working days to complete the SWIFT transfer. Experts say that, basically, the transaction is fully completed in 2-3 days.
Things are much more complicated with the recall or the need to adjust the data specified in the transfer. In time, such an operation can take up to 30 days. The maximum loss of time occurs when an error is detected already at the stage of the message passing by intermediary banks.
Amount Limitations
There are no restrictions on the amount of transfers in the system. However, participating banks must comply with the applicable laws of the states in which they operate.
For example, Russia has set a limit on the amount sent to foreign correspondents by a resident of the Russian Federation within one business day (for more details, see text and comments on Law No. 1783-FZ). In equivalent, it cannot exceed $ 5000. Participating banks from Russia will limit the amount of the Swift transfer at this level, or will require documentary confirmation of the purpose of the transfer.
Transfer fees
SWIFT system is one of the most profitable in terms of fees - it does not set fixed rates. The authority to determine the amount of payment has been delegated to participating banks. As a result, in most cases the percentage of the commission is even lower than for the transfer of funds in instant transfer systems. However, this is true only when the established interest rate comes into force - all participants in the system stipulate the minimum amount of commission.
In different banks, the commissions are:
- 0.1-2% (minimum 10-60 dollars) - for sending a transfer;
- $ 20-100 for a chargeback or request to send it.
It is easy to calculate that a transfer becomes profitable only when the percentage of the commission exceeds the amount of the minimum payment. For example, for Sberbank (a transfer in US dollars is paid at the rate of 2% but not less than $ 15), the border is 75 dollars.
Additional commissions with the participation of intermediary banks are not excluded. The final amount will be reported only by the operator at the time of shipment.
A feature of the system is the payment of the commission by the recipient. Accordingly, if it is necessary for the correspondent to receive a certain amount, the amount of payment will have to be increased taking into account commission payments.
Who is it made for
The specificity of payments determines the main advantages of SWIFT transfers:
- Security and reliability credited to bank accounts;
- High speed of informational messages and transactions;
- No restrictions on the amount of transfers and the use of currencies;
- Favorable commissions with significant amounts and payment at the expense of the recipient.
All this suggests that the system was developed by bank specialists for regular customers working with large amounts. Actually, S.W.I.F.T. and such is.