BANK ROBBERY: THE INSIDE JOB

Why Greed Keeps Banks From Fully Embracing SWIFT GPI

BY RUTHIE DITUCCI

For centuries, the banking industry has been the undisputed gatekeeper of global payments. From the earliest merchant banks of Renaissance Europe to today’s sprawling multinational financial giants, one constant has endured: the ability of banks to profit quietly from the movement of its customers’ money across borders.

Now, a technology called SWIFT GPI (Global Payments Innovation) threatens to upend that comfortable status quo — and many banks are not rushing to adopt it.

The Old System: Slow, Opaque, and Profitable

The traditional SWIFT network — the backbone of international wire transfers — was never designed for speed or transparency. It functioned like a global postal system for financial instructions: Bank A sends a message to Bank B, often through a chain of intermediary “correspondent” banks, telling them to transfer funds.

It’s that obscurity that banks have always enjoyed that also made them reject cryptocurrency (because of its transparency).

The process could take two to five days, with the money effectively “in limbo.” During that time:

Each intermediary bank skims its own undisclosed fee off the top.
Neither sender nor recipient could track the payment in real time.
The originating bank earns interest (“float”) on money before it arrived.

This system wasn’t broken for banks — in fact, it was a goldmine of micro-revenue streams hidden inside every transaction.

President Donald J. Trump has signed an Executive Order to ensure that Federal regulators do not promote policies and practices that allow financial institutions to deny or restrict services based on political beliefs, religious beliefs, or lawful business activities, ensuring fair access to banking for all Americans.

The Order directs Federal banking regulators to remove reputational risk and other equivalent concepts that enable politicized or unlawful debanking from their guidance, examination manuals and other materials.
The Order instructs the Small Business Administration to require all financial institutions subject to its jurisdiction to make reasonable efforts to reinstate clients and potential clients previously denied services due to unlawful debanking.
The Order directs the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, to develop a comprehensive strategy to further combat politicized or unlawful debanking activities, including potential legislative or regulatory solutions.

The New System: SWIFT GPI

Launched in 2017, SWIFT GPI is an upgrade that brings the digital-age expectations of speed and transparency to cross-border payments. It allows:

Near-instant tracking — like a FedEx package, every step is visible.
Same-day (sometimes minutes-long) settlement.
Full fee breakdowns, showing exactly who took what along the route.
Confirmation of delivery, so both parties know when funds have arrived.

It’s a win for businesses and individuals who want certainty and clarity. But for banks, it shines a bright light into a corner banks have kept dim for centuries.

Why Banks Resist

The reluctance isn’t about technology — it’s about profit protection. Here’s why many banks drag their feet on full adoption:

1. Fee Transparency Cuts Quiet Revenue

With SWIFT GPI, customers can see exactly which banks charged what fees if any, along the way. If one bank’s fee looks excessive, clients can switch providers. That means the days of hiding extra charges inside the payment chain are over.

2. No More Float Income

When payments take hours instead of days, banks lose the interest they earn from holding client money during the transfer process. For large transactions, even a day’s float can mean significant revenue.

3. Competitive Pressure

GPI levels the playing field — banks can’t hide behind processing delays or murky pricing. The most expensive or slowest players will stand out, and not in a flattering way.

4. Costly Upgrades

Implementing GPI requires overhauling legacy systems, retraining staff, and integrating new tracking tools. That’s a tough investment to justify if the end result is lower per-transaction profit.

5. Loss of Control

With Corporate GPI, large companies can track payments themselves rather than relying solely on the bank’s updates. That reduces a bank’s gatekeeping power over payment information.

Greed vs. Progress

Banks could embrace SWIFT GPI right now and build trust through transparency, speed, and better service. But doing so means sacrificing a business model that’s been extraordinarily profitable for hundreds of years — one based on complexity, opacity, and a little extra fee here and there.

President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order to ensure that Federal regulators do not promote policies and practices that allow financial institutions to deny or restrict services based on political beliefs, religious beliefs, or lawful business activities, ensuring fair access to banking for all Americans.

The Order directs Federal banking regulators to remove reputational risk and other equivalent concepts that enable politicized or unlawful debanking from their guidance, examination manuals and other materials.
The Order instructs the Small Business Administration to require all financial institutions subject to its jurisdiction to make reasonable efforts to reinstate clients and potential clients previously denied services due to unlawful debanking.
The Order directs the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, to develop a comprehensive strategy to further combat politicized or unlawful debanking activities, including potential legislative or regulatory solutions.

NOTE: As recently as August 2025, when a client asked a top 5 world bank for them to transfer funds using the SWIFT GPI procedure, the banker replied that SWIFT GPI was an insignificant local procedure used by banks whose customers handled nefarious transactions — and stated that SWIFT GPI wasn’t a mandatory tool or procedure.

It’s not that banks can’t modernize. It’s that modernization forces them to trade in the old velvet-lined cash register for a glass box where everyone can see what’s inside.

And for an industry that’s mastered the art of making money quietly, that’s a very loud change.