A client in Spain sends 5,000 euros to a broker's account in Cyprus and it lands the same day with 5,000 euros credited. A client in Malaysia sends the equivalent in dollars to the same broker, waits four days, and 4,928 arrives. Neither bank made an error. The two payments used entirely different machinery, and only one of them had a rulebook that guaranteed the arriving amount.
SEPA is a scheme, not a network
The Single Euro Payments Area covers the European Union plus a set of neighbouring countries that adopted the same rules. Inside it, a euro payment is addressed by IBAN, carries a structured reference, and settles under one standard: a normal SEPA Credit Transfer reaches the beneficiary within one business day, and SEPA Instant moves it in seconds, at any hour, up to the per transaction cap the scheme sets.
Two features do the real work. Charges are shared, with each side paying its own bank and no deductions in transit, so the beneficiary receives the exact amount sent. And EU rules require a bank to treat a euro payment to another SEPA country the same way it treats a domestic one, which is why an unexplained surcharge on a cross border euro transfer is worth challenging. Refusing an IBAN from another SEPA country is a separate and equally unlawful practice, covered in IBAN discrimination.
SWIFT is a message, and the money follows separately
SWIFT does not move money. It carries a standardised instruction, the familiar MT103 among them, between banks that already hold accounts with each other. If your bank has no direct relationship with the beneficiary's bank, the payment is routed through one or more correspondents that do, and each hop is a real posting between real accounts.
That chain explains everything people find frustrating about international transfers. It is slower because each institution processes in its own business hours and cut-off times. It is opaque because the sender sees only the first leg, unless the banks involved support gpi tracking. And it costs more because every participant is providing a service it expects to be paid for.
| SEPA | SWIFT | |
|---|---|---|
| Currency | Euro only | Any currency |
| Reach | EU plus participating neighbours | Global |
| Speed | Same or next business day, seconds on Instant | One to five business days, longer with checks |
| Charges | Shared, no deduction in transit | OUR, SHA or BEN, deductions possible at each hop |
| Amount received | Exactly the amount sent | Often less than the amount sent |
Where the missing money goes
Every SWIFT payment carries a charge option. Under SHA, the shared default, the sender pays their own bank and the intermediaries deduct from the amount in transit. Under BEN, the beneficiary carries everything. Under OUR, the sender pays the whole chain upfront and the full figure arrives, which costs more at the point of sending and saves an awkward conversation with the broker's finance team later.
Currency conversion sits on top of that. If the account is denominated in a different currency from the one you sent, someone in the chain converts it, usually at the receiving bank's own rate with a margin built in. That margin is invisible on the statement because it is priced into the exchange rate rather than shown as a fee. We break the arithmetic down in SWIFT fees explained, and the workaround, holding balances in the currency you actually deposit in, sits in multi currency accounts.
Send a bank transfer only from an account in your own name. Third party payments are returned under anti money laundering rules at almost every regulated firm, and a return trip through the correspondent chain costs fees on both legs plus whatever the exchange rate did while the money was in limbo.
What decides whether your deposit is credited
Three things cause most delays at the broker's end. The reference is missing or wrong, so the finance team cannot match the incoming payment to an account. The sender name on the SWIFT message does not match the client's verified name, which triggers a manual review. Or the amount does not match what the client says they sent, because the chain took its cut, and someone has to decide whether to credit the arriving figure or hold it.
None of that is unusual, and all of it is avoidable. Copy the reference exactly, send from your own verified account, and expect the credited amount on an international wire to be the amount that arrived rather than the amount you instructed. If the broker offers a local collection account or a virtual IBAN in your country, use it: the payment becomes domestic and the whole chain disappears. The mechanism is explained in virtual IBANs.
For firms: this is a reconciliation problem
From the broker's side, bank transfer is the cheapest rail per unit of volume and the most expensive in staff time. Payments arrive with truncated references, partial names and unpredictable amounts, and someone has to match each one to a client before the trading account is funded. Firms that grow past a few hundred transfers a month either automate the matching against bank statement files or hire people to do it by hand.
The design that works is a per client reference generated at the moment the deposit instruction is issued, statement ingestion that matches on reference first and name second, and an exception queue for everything else with a written rule for partial amounts. Getting that right is what turns a two day funding delay into a same day credit, and it is worth more to client retention than another percentage point off the spread.
"Clients do not complain about the fee. They complain that nobody could tell them where the money was for three days. Tracking beats pricing every time on transfers."
— Roman Onta, Executive Director, SINGUARD
Key Takeaways
- SEPA is a euro only scheme with shared charges, so the beneficiary receives exactly the amount that was sent.
- SWIFT carries the instruction while the funds pass through correspondent banks, each of which can deduct fees in transit.
- The OUR charge option makes the sender carry the whole chain so the full amount arrives, at a higher upfront cost.
- Use your own verified account and the exact reference, or expect a manual review before the deposit is credited.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between SEPA and SWIFT?
SEPA is a euro payment scheme covering the European Union and several neighbouring countries, with standard rules, IBAN addressing and no correspondent chain. SWIFT is a global messaging network used to instruct cross border payments in any currency, where the money actually moves through a chain of correspondent banks that each apply their own fees and cut-offs.
Why did less money arrive than I sent by international transfer?
On a SWIFT payment sent with shared charges, each intermediary bank in the chain may deduct its fee from the amount in transit, and the receiving bank can charge as well. Currency conversion adds a margin on top. Sending with the OUR charge option puts those costs on the sender so the beneficiary receives the full figure, at a higher upfront fee.
Can a broker refuse a transfer that arrives from someone else's account?
Yes, and most will. Anti money laundering rules require the funding account to be in the client's own name, so a payment from a partner, employer or company account is normally returned to source. Returns take days, cost fees on both legs, and the sender bears the exchange rate difference.