Swift have one of the biggest moats in the world. They are in all banks already, other businesses are not, they are already trusted and they sell both the servi

Swift have one of the biggest moats in the world. They are in all banks already, other businesses are not, they are already trusted and they sell both the service and the hw to access their service. So they can charge a lot for their services. What the banks want is a 100% reliable and traceable communications system that everyone trust. Good luck breaking into that market. :) I imagine they dont mind paying a lot because they dont actually need to send that much information. http://www.swift.com/solutions/pricing/fs_pricing_easier_200803.pdf http://www.swift.com/solutions/pricing/fs_pricing_easier_200... That looks to be a bit old version of their prices. I've met some of the nice Belgian guys that run their support - not a job I'd really like. If there's a business where you need to be conservative, and defects are really not ok in any way, it's theirs.