Payment rails
SWIFT
International interbank messaging network behind the slow, expensive wires used outside local zones.
SWIFT does not move money: it carries messages between banks, which then settle their mutual accounts. An international wire often travels a chain of correspondent banks, each able to take fees on the way.
Hence the rail’s two characteristics: two to five business days, and an amount received sometimes lower than the amount sent, with nobody having announced it beforehand. It is the rail of last resort, used when no local rail exists.