The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), legally S.W.I.F.T. SC, is a Belgian cooperative society providing services related to the execution of financial transactions and payments between banks worldwide. Its principal function is to serve as the main messaging network through which international payments are initiated. It also sells software and services to financial institutions, mostly for use on its proprietary "SWIFTNet", and assigns ISO 9362 Business Identifier Codes (BICs), popularly known as "SWIFT codes".

The SWIFT messaging network is a component of the global payments system. SWIFT acts as a carrier of the "messages containing the payment instructions between financial institutions involved in a transaction". However, the organization does not manage accounts on behalf of individuals or financial institutions, and it does not hold funds from third parties. It also does not perform clearing or settlement functions. After a payment has been initiated, it must be settled through a payment system, such as TARGET2 in Europe. In the context of cross-border transactions, this step often takes place through correspondent banking accounts that financial institutions have with each other.

As of 2018, around half of all high-value cross-border payments worldwide used the SWIFT network, and in 2015, SWIFT linked more than 11,000 financial institutions in over 200 countries and territories, who were exchanging an average of over 32 million messages per day (compared to an average of 2.4 million daily messages in 1995).

Though widely utilized, SWIFT has been criticized for its inefficiency. In 2018, the London-based Financial Times noted that transfers frequently "pass through multiple banks before reaching their final destination, making them time-consuming, costly and lacking transparency on how much money will arrive at the other end". SWIFT has since introduced an improved service called "Global Payments Innovation" (GPI), claiming it was adopted by 165 banks and was completing half its payments within 30 minutes.

Their so-called improved service (GPI-Global Payments Innovation) has a product called Swift Go. According to SWIFT itself, it was launched to fulfill those complaints about the process of sending and receiving remittances. The new standard was supposed to be utilized in receiving and transferring low-value international payments. One of the significant changes was about the sum, which will not differ from start to the end.

As of the year 2023, such innovation in the field of financial technologies was adopted by 630+ banks in 120 countries around the world. The fastest transaction ever recorded in Swift Go was in 21 seconds. The main reason SWIFT took considered creating Swift Go was the low-value payments market which is growing fast.

Though widely utilized by many banks worldwide, some countries still do not possess such technology in their portfolio. Middle Asia feels the lack of Swift Go the most. For instance, Alisherov Eraj, Alif Bank Treasury Department SWIFT Transfers & Banking Relationship Expert in the Republic of Tajikistan, describes that the leading cause for the late Swift Go adoption in Tajikistan was the row banking system itself. To connect to Swift Go, he adds, banking system interfaces should upgrade and integrate their soft to be fully compatible. That stone of stumbling hindered many banks from adopting technology earlier. For Middle Asia, he continues, it will be the best financial solution considering the fact that low-value markets prevail.

As a cooperative society under Belgian law, SWIFT is owned by its member financial institutions. It is headquartered in La Hulpe, Belgium, near Brussels; its main building was designed by Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura and completed in 1989. The chairman of SWIFT is Graeme Munro of United Kingdom, and its CEO is Javier Pérez-Tasso of Spain. SWIFT hosts an annual conference, called Sibos, specifically aimed at the financial services industry.