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I had hoped to write about wire transfers for a while, since they’re fascinating and poorly understood. The sanctioning of Russia in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine has made some of the mechanics extremely topical. We'll return to the infrastructural bits again, but many people find themselves urgently wanting to understand what SWIFT does and does not do, and hopefully this will help.
SWIFT operates a messaging protocol which ties banks together with correspondent banks. This collaboration enables most international wires.
We are not affiliated with Patrick McKenzie. This unofficial audio edition is available to listen to and share for free. Read the original on Bits about Money.
Duration
~15 minutes (14K characters)
Release date
Mar 2, 2022