I have worked in this business for 20 years at some of the largest banks, so know something about this. In short, yes, at the big banks, most wire processing is

I have worked in this business for 20 years at some of the largest banks, so know something about this. In short, yes, at the big banks, most wire processing is automated. Straight through processing rates are > 90%. An explanation of what happens is at initiating and receiving banks is beyond the scope of anything I want to type. At banks with high volumes, more processing is automated (see above) for low volume banks, not so much. Payments may fall out of automated processing for several reasons like poor instructions quality (unknown account number), complex correspondent/routing requirements, sanctions screening (OFAC in the US). For high volume banks, even with high STP rates, this can mean 1,000's of payments per day. As for why wires cost so much, the answer depends on who is paying. The most frequent users of wires often pay very little for them because bank's provide wire services as a package in exchange for holding balances with the bank. Only retail customers and small businesses pay full price ($25-40) for wire payments, and bank's charge this much because they can. Retail is such a small part of the wire payments business that if you take you business elsewhere the bank does not really care. One last note on pricing. Most wire originate from the same set of bank customers on a regular basis, so their processing is highly automated and the bank's risk and fraud systems are trained to expect these payments. Occasional payments from retail customers probably do require manual processing more often, so a higher price is probably warranted to some extent.