SWIFT or local rail

SWIFT, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, makes sending international payments easier by providing a secure messaging system between financial institutions.

When you send a payment by SWIFT it settles quickly, typically within T+0 or T+1. However, because intermediary financial institutions along the payment route may charge handling fees or commissions, SWIFT has additional charges. These charges are not always the same. The amount depends on the specific financial institutions involved in the transaction.

When you pay through a local rail, such as SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area), typically you'll have no handling fees or commissions, because this payment rail uses banks in the recipient country to make international payments easier. Payments sent by local rails settle efficiently, typically within T+0 to T+2.

Certain Local Rail currencies are subject to transfer limits. For the full list of applicable limits by currency, refer to Supported countries.

For certain countries your only option is to use SWIFT because no local rail is accessible. The table of countries supported shows which countries are limited to SWIFT transactions.

In the Request payment quote endpoint, set priority to TRUE to transfer funds using the SWIFT network. Set priority to FALSE to use a local rail in the recipient country.