# SWIFT
> SWIFT is a messaging network, not a settlement rail. Transfers take 1 to 3 business days and pick up $15 to $30 in correspondent fees at every hop.
Canonical: https://fasset.com/business/glossary/swift/

SWIFT is the messaging network banks use to instruct each other to move money; it does not move money itself. Funds travel through one or more correspondent banks, so a SWIFT transfer takes 1 to 3 business days and picks up $15 to $30 in fees at each hop.

- **Stands for:** Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication
- **What it does:** Carries payment instructions between banks worldwide; the money itself moves separately, bank to bank
- **SWIFT / BIC code:** 8 or 11 characters identifying a specific bank and branch, for example NWBKGB2L
- **Typical transfer time:** 1 to 3 business days
- **Correspondent fees:** $15 to $30 deducted at each intermediary hop

## Why do SWIFT payments cost more than the fee on the receipt?

Every correspondent bank a payment passes through can deduct its own handling fee, typically $15 to $30, before passing the balance on, and each hop can add the better part of a business day. A wire that looks like a single $45 fee on your statement often has two or three of these invisible hops behind it, which is why, on our model, a $10,000 wire comes to about $340 in total charges. Fasset routes payments over local rails or USDT where it can, which skips the correspondent chain, see the full anatomy on the payments page.

## Related terms

- **Correspondent bank:** The intermediary a SWIFT payment passes through on its way to you, and why $15 to $30 goes missing at each hop.
- **IBAN:** The up-to-34-character account number used across Europe, the UK and the Gulf, and why your US client has never seen one.
- **Mid-market rate:** The real exchange rate, no markup, the one on Google. Banks add 2 to 4% on top before they show you a number.

## Open an account

Fasset Business gives businesses local currency accounts and modern rails. The application runs entirely online.

- Open an account
- See the demo

Client funds are held separately from Fasset’s own.