An investigation is underway to determine the cause of a “payments issue” that caused a delay in high value and time-sensitive money transfers worldwide. The incident affected house purchases and lasted several hours. Swift, which permits the rapid transfer of money globally, apologised and said that it regarded the incident as “extremely serious”. The Bank of England subsequently issued a warning that the CHAPS system employed by some High Street banks, and international lenders, might also suffer from the wider global network’s issue.
Swift explained that the “operational incident” causing the delay for some clients was the reason behind the issue and not cyber-related. A statement from the organisation confirmed it is in touch with its customers to support them and help lessen the impact on their operations and subsequent customer transactions. Ordinary debit and credit payments, bank transfers, and cash machines weren’t affected.
Around 4,000 housing deals are concluded in the UK on a daily basis, and many of these involve using the CHAPS system. Andrew Montlake, who works for mortgage broker Coreco, warned the issue could have been a “nightmare” for home buyers awaiting completion if the problem had not been resolved more rapidly.
Swift is a Belgium-based cooperative founded in 1973; it’s not a bank and does not manage its clients’ money. It is instead responsible for running an instant messaging system that lets banks know when payments have been submitted and received, with over 40 million daily messages transmitted as trillions of dollars move between businesses and governments
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