What is the Full Form of SWIFT? 

The full form of SWIFT is Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications. Headquartered in Belgium, it is a cooperative that is owned by its members. It provides its representatives with the facility of secure money transfers.  Even if the bank of the consumer is different from the payee SWIFT services allow people and organisations to accept cards and electronic payment methods. Every partner organisation of SWIFT gets an identification number that helps in knowing the name of the bank, its branch, city and country. 

SWIFT has a vast network and it operates in various countries which entail the Russian Federation, Japan, Korea, Germany, India, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, South Africa, the US, the UK, Spain and the UAE. 

How to Send Money with SWIFT? 

SWIFT can be used to send money to friends and family abroad to pay for goods and services, rent, tuition fees, etc. The process involved in sending money with SWIFT is the same as sending money through a wire transfer. In order to send money with SWIFT you will be required to gather the following things:

• Any other documentation or information required by your bank
• Your government-issued ID
• Recipient’s full legal name, current address, and account number
• Recipient’s bank name, address and country, routing code
• SWIFT Code of the bank account
• Purpose of sending funds

Once you gather the above-mentioned information you will need to follow the steps mentioned below:

• Visit your bank or log into your bank’s system to request an international wire transfer.
• Make an effort to understand the fees and limits linked with sending money abroad.
• You may be asked to give information like the country you are sending money to and the currency you would like to send. 
• Make sure you keep a record of the money transfer through SWIFT. 

If you will be receiving money through SWIFT then you will be required to know the SWIFT no. of your bank for the person who is sending you money. The SWIFT numbers may differ based on whether you are receiving money in US dollars or some other currency. 

Also Read: Career in Banking 2023: Jobs, Salary, How to Start? 

Who Uses SWIFT?

In the beginning, SWIFT was designed as a network to enable communication about Treasury and correspondent transactions only by its founders. The huge impact of the message format design led to the expansion because of which SWIFT gradually scaled up and started providing services to the following:

• Foreign exchange and money brokers
• Treasury market participants and service providers
• Exchanges
• Clearinghouses
• Securities dealers
• Banks
• Brokerage institutes and trading houses
• Asset management companies
• Depositories
• Corporate business houses
• Individuals or businesses making international wires or money transfers

Services Provided by SWIFT 

• Compliance Services
• Messaging, Connectivity and Software Solutions
• Applications
• Business Intelligence

So, this was SWIFT full form and other important information related to it. For more such informative articles keep following our page.