A SWIFT code identifies a bank for international wire transfers. It is an eight- or eleven-character code that tells the SWIFT network where to route a payment. The first four characters are the bank code. The next two are the country code. The next two are the location code. The optional last three identify a specific branch. The code for JPMorgan Chase's New York headquarters is CHASUS33. For a branch, it might be CHASUS33XXX.

SWIFT stands for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. It is a cooperative owned by its member banks, founded in 1973 and headquartered in Belgium. It is not a payment system. It is a messaging system. It sends instructions between banks, which then settle the actual funds through correspondent accounts. The network carries over 40 million messages a day, worth trillions of dollars.

SWIFT codes are also called BIC codes, for Bank Identifier Code. They are used for international wires, foreign exchange transactions, and trade finance. To send money internationally, you need the recipient's bank SWIFT code, their IBAN or account number, and their name and address. A single error can delay or misroute the payment.

SWIFT has been drawn into geopolitics. In 2022, the European Union and the United States disconnected several Russian banks from SWIFT after the invasion of Ukraine. That cut them off from most international payments. The move showed how central SWIFT is to the global financial system, and how vulnerable it is to political pressure.