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"SWIFT was founded in Brussels in 1973 under the leadership of its inaugural CEO, Carl Reuterskiöld (1973–1989), and was supported by 239 banks in fifteen count

"SWIFT was founded in Brussels in 1973 under the leadership of its inaugural CEO, Carl Reuterskiöld (1973–1989), and was supported by 239 banks in fifteen countries. It started to establish common standards for financial transactions and a shared data processing system and worldwide communications network designed by Logica and developed by the Burroughs Corporation. Fundamental operating procedures, rules for liability, etc., were established in 1975 and the first message was sent in 1977. SWIFT's first United States operating center was inaugurated by Governor John N. Dalton of Virginia in 1979" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_for_Worldwide_Interbank_Financial_Telecommunication https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_for_Worldwide_Interban... See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clearing_House_Interbank_Payments_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clearing_House_Interbank_Payme... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedwire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedwire

shepardrtc 8y ago
SWIFT is a messaging system, not a settlement system. Its also far slower than blockchain, more complex, and more prone to error. I think around 6% of transactions just disappear.
- twic 8y ago
  I'd be interested to see actual numbers for transaction volume, latency, and reliability of SWIFT and blockchain in practical use cases. I worked on a payment system using the UK's Faster Payment Scheme a while ago. The SLA for latency is two seconds end-to-end, and is usually much faster than that, was simple enough for a gang of underpaid COBOL programmers to implement it successfully, and didn't have a mechanical error rate worth bothering about. In January it moved 186.1 million payments and 161 billion pounds: http://www.fasterpayments.org.uk/statistics http://www.fasterpayments.org.uk/statistics FPS is UK-only, but there's nothing about the technology or the commercial and legal machinery that wouldn't work internationally. If SWIFT is really as bad as you say, it could be replaced with a better instance of the same technology; it doesn't require a haunted git repository to fix it.
  - Skunkleton 8y ago
    > it doesn't require a haunted git repository to fix it. lol, thanks for that.
  - zubairq 8y ago
    I used to work for SWIFT. The 6% error rate is incorrect as errors are detected and resent using different methods, so more like 0.0001% error rate. Sometimes SWIFT transfers trillions of dollars in a single day, so yes, it is the largest trading volume in the world
- Lazlo_Nibble 8y ago
  In 15+ years of building and maintaining SWIFT-connected systems that run SWIFT-provided software, I’ve never encountered a situation where a SWIFT message has “just disappeared”.
- Pamar 8y ago
  "Citation needed" for the 6% figure.

shepardrtc 8y ago

SWIFT is a messaging system, not a settlement system. Its also far slower than blockchain, more complex, and more prone to error. I think around 6% of transactions just disappear.

twic 8y ago
I'd be interested to see actual numbers for transaction volume, latency, and reliability of SWIFT and blockchain in practical use cases. I worked on a payment system using the UK's Faster Payment Scheme a while ago. The SLA for latency is two seconds end-to-end, and is usually much faster than that, was simple enough for a gang of underpaid COBOL programmers to implement it successfully, and didn't have a mechanical error rate worth bothering about. In January it moved 186.1 million payments and 161 billion pounds: http://www.fasterpayments.org.uk/statistics http://www.fasterpayments.org.uk/statistics FPS is UK-only, but there's nothing about the technology or the commercial and legal machinery that wouldn't work internationally. If SWIFT is really as bad as you say, it could be replaced with a better instance of the same technology; it doesn't require a haunted git repository to fix it.
- Skunkleton 8y ago
  > it doesn't require a haunted git repository to fix it. lol, thanks for that.
- zubairq 8y ago
  I used to work for SWIFT. The 6% error rate is incorrect as errors are detected and resent using different methods, so more like 0.0001% error rate. Sometimes SWIFT transfers trillions of dollars in a single day, so yes, it is the largest trading volume in the world
Lazlo_Nibble 8y ago
In 15+ years of building and maintaining SWIFT-connected systems that run SWIFT-provided software, I’ve never encountered a situation where a SWIFT message has “just disappeared”.
Pamar 8y ago
"Citation needed" for the 6% figure.