SWIFT
Published 8 November 2026, 22:44
SWIFT — Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (international system for bank messages)
Strictly speaking, it is not a system for transferring money but a messaging system between banks: your bank sends an instruction, and the money travels along a chain of accounts via a correspondent bank — a third bank that holds accounts in both countries. So a transfer involves not two parties but three, and the third often has the final say. Field 71A of the instruction determines who pays the fees: OUR — the sender pays everything and the recipient gets the full amount; SHA — each side pays its own bank, and the correspondent takes its cut along the way; BEN — all fees are deducted from the amount transferred. Details needed to receive money: IBAN and the bank's BIC/SWIFT.
Where you come across it. A transfer from a country outside the SEPA zone to a Portuguese account, a salary from a foreign employer, paying tax from an account in another country.
The sending bank cannot guarantee that the transfer will arrive: the correspondent bank can return the payment under its own rules, and then the money takes weeks to come back and some of the fees are lost. Within the European Union, a transfer in euros is made under SEPA rules — it is faster and cheaper, and SWIFT is not needed.
Official website: ecb.europa.eu/paym/html/index.en.html