The global financial messaging network used in international trade is SWIFT. The name originally stood for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, the cooperative founded by banks to standardise secure cross-border financial messages.
SWIFT does not itself transfer or hold money. Instead, it sends authenticated payment instructions and other financial messages between participating institutions. The banks and payment systems then settle the funds through their own accounts and infrastructure.
The cooperative was established in 1973 and began operating in 1977, replacing slower and less standardised telex-based communication for international banking. Its message standards help institutions identify accounts, banks and transaction details consistently across borders.
TARGET2 is the euro-area real-time gross settlement system, while Fedwire is operated by the U.S. Federal Reserve and CHIPS is a large-value dollar payment system. Those systems move or settle funds; SWIFT primarily supplies the secure messaging layer that tells financial institutions what to do.