If you’ve been involved in an international wire transfer lately, you’d know that the process might make you feel nervous, and it feels like a leap of faith, but that’s all natural. After all, you are wiring cash to another country, hoping that the money won’t get stuck somewhere.

Fortunately, international money transfers have improved over the last couple of years, and bank standards have also been upgraded to feature faster and more secure international wire transfers.

But how safe is the process? Are there any things to consider before you send money abroad?
Well, although the process is generally safe, there are a few things you need to consider before you send money to a friend in a different country. So, let’s dive deeper and find out how to do it right.

How Do International Transfers Work?

Let’s imagine that you are in New York, and you are sending $500 to your sister in London. You log into your bank account, type in her IBAN (that long European account number), and hit send. Your bank then talks to hers through a network cline SWIFT, which is used by over 11,000 institutions in 200+ countries, or for regional transfers (within Europe), you might use systems like SEPA.

So, the moment you send the money, it goes through a few steps (your bank, a middleman-intermediary, and then the bank of the person you are sending the money to). The process usually lasts 1-5 days, depending on the location you are sending money to, and is generally safe.

Since we live in an open-world economy and businesses often have international transactions, many payment platforms and banks now offer an international money transfer for business. These are even safer, since they often go through many steps before getting released.

The Safety Nets

In today’s modern finance world, banks don’t mess around with security, just because there is too much at stake. First of all, your money transfer is encrypted end-to-end, using standards like TLS 1.3, which the National Institute of Standards and Technology usually calls “military-grade” encryption.

Additionally, SWIFT’s Customer Security Programme, which has been mandatory since 2018, forces banks to lock down their systems, meaning that there are two-factor authentication processes and additional fraud checks.

In the United States, the Federal Reserve oversees wire transfers under Regulation J, ensuring that funds settle securely.

So, there are a lot of financial bodies responsible for making sure that every international money wiring system stays safe at all times.

Plus, if something goes wrong (which rarely happens), like the money vanishing, there are laws that have your back. In the United States, the Electronic Fund Transfer Act limits your ability to $50 if you report fraud fast, and in the EU, SEPA rules give you 13 months to reclaim unauthorized transfers.

In other words, if things go wrong, and the money you send somehow doesn’t end up in the right place, you are entitled to a full refund (depending on the amount you are sending).

Are International Transfers Safe?

The short answer is yes, and there is data to back this claim. For example, if we take a look at the 10 billion+ + payment messages that the SWIFT network processed in 2024, the success rate is 99.999%, meaning that most of the transactions arrived safely and without any issues.

Plus, many systems, rules, and regulations have cut down cross-border fraud in the past couple of years, which is another thing that you don’t have to worry about.

Lastly, even if the network somehow fails to process your transaction and your transaction gets lost (which almost never happens), you can always submit for a refund and get your money back.

Where It Gets Dicey

Here’s the human part: safety is not foolproof. Scams are the biggie—think phishing emails tricking you into sending money to a fake account.

In 2024, Action Fraud UK logged £1.3 billion lost to “authorized push payment” scams, where people willingly sent cash to crooks. If you type the wrong account number—like I almost did, sending $200 to a friend in Canada last year—good luck getting it back; banks aren’t obligated to reverse honest mistakes.

Weak links exist too—smaller banks in less-regulated countries might lag on security, though SWIFT’s 2025 audits flagged only 0.5% of members as non-compliant.

Timing’s another hitch. Standard transfers take 1-5 days, giving fraudsters a window if you don’t catch it fast. Instant options like SEPA Instant transfers (under 20 seconds) shrink that risk, but not every bank offers them yet.

How to Keep It Safe

You’ve got some control here. Double-check details—my cousin lost €300 in 2023 because he fat-fingered an IBAN.

Use trusted banks—JPMorgan Chase moved $2 trillion internationally in 2024 with zero systemic breaches.

Watch for red flags: a “landlord” demanding urgent wire transfers is a scam waiting to happen. Two-factor authentication, now standard at online payment platforms like Genome, adds a lock. And if you’re paranoid, use reputable financial service providers with good customer support that can help you if you run into some issues, but that won’t happen.