SWIFT Fees in South Africa: No Bank Is Cheapest at Every Size

SWIFT fees are the fees your bank charges to send (or receive) an international payment using the international SWIFT network (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), which banks use to send payment instructions to each other. South African banks publish them in their pricing guides or on their websites. They tend to differ by bank, by what channel is used (e.g. online or branch) as well as by the size of the payment, usually as a percentage with a minimum and a maximum. Some banks add a fixed SWIFT or communication charge. A foreign or correspondent bank may also take a charge before the money arrives in the account. And then there is the spread on the exchange rate, which you pay on top of all of these (more on this below).

SWIFT fees by bank: sending money abroad

Here are the fees for an outward payment in a foreign currency made online, from each bank's own 2026 published figures (VAT included), and what each fee works out to on a payment worth R20,000, R100,000 and R1 million in rand.

Sources: FNB Business Annual Pricing Guide 2026/27, page 36 (Gold and Platinum business accounts, payments outside the Common Monetary Area); Standard Bank Trade and Forex 2026; Absa's online international-payments calculator, read 28 September 2026 (it does not say whether its figures include VAT, so we have added 15%; Absa does not set out a separate business tariff, so check your own statement); Nedbank's Non-resident and Embassy Banking fees for entities, effective 1 January 2026 (Nedbank does not publish a business tariff); Investec Forex Fees 2026, for its Private Business Account. Nedbank's receipts are zero-rated for VAT.

Doing the payment in the branch (or having the bank do it for you) costs more. FNB's assisted payments are 0.55%, but with a minimum of R550 and a maximum of R875. At Standard Bank it is 0.7%, from R300 to R995, plus the same R122. Absa's branch payments are 0.75%, from R260 to R920, plus R190. Nedbank's are 0.89%, from R275 to R1,196, plus the R140.

With the minimums and maximums, which bank's SWIFT fee is lowest depends on the size of your payment. Investec is lowest on R20,000 at R250, then FNB from about R50,000, reaching its R550 maximum at R100,000. On a R1 million payment, Nedbank's R1,100 is double FNB's.

SWIFT fees by bank: receiving money from abroad

If you are an exporter, you pay a fee on each foreign-currency receipt as well. It is usually a bit lower than the fee for sending.

None of the five banks lists a separate SWIFT charge on receipts, though Nedbank has a flat R135 on receipts under R2,000. Of importance, unless the sender pays all the charges (OUR, below), a charge taken by a bank in between can come off before the money reaches you.

OUR, SHA or BEN: who pays the foreign bank charges

Each SWIFT payment goes with one of three charge options, which you (or your bank) choose. This is how FNB's 2026/27 pricing guide describes them:

• BEN (beneficiary): the person or company receiving the money pays all the charges.
• SHA (shared): the charges are shared between you and the receiver.
• OUR: you pay your own bank's charges and the receiving bank's charges.

With SHA or BEN, a bank in between (a correspondent bank) can take its charge out of the payment, and your supplier then gets less than the invoice amount. With OUR, those charges are yours rather than your supplier's, which costs extra, e.g.:

• FNB: under OUR, the receiving bank's charges can be debited from your account up to six months after the payment.
• Investec: R190 per outward payment if you ask Investec to pay the offshore bank charges.

A payment that goes wrong will also cost you. At Standard Bank, the foreign bank's charges are passed on if a payment is returned, or if its details are missing or wrong so it has to be handled manually (not "straight-through-processing compliant").

The foreign banks set their own charges, and none of the five tariffs above says what they are.

The spread comes on top of the SWIFT fee

The spread is the price gap between the interbank rate (the market rate the bank itself deals at) and the rate they give you. Of importance, this does not appear on your statement as a fee, and unlike the SWIFT fee it has no maximum. On 12 October 2026, the published US dollar rates (rate boards) at FNB, Standard Bank and Absa were 1.07% to 1.18% above the market rate for payments. On a US$100,000 payment through FNB, the SWIFT fee was R550 and the spread about R17,650. What a forex spread is, and how to work out yours explains it, and our comparison of bank forex fees in South Africa sets out each bank's spread.

Choose your bank and channel in the Rand FX savings calculator to see what the SWIFT fee and the spread come to over a year of your payments. Our preferred FX provider charges a minimal flat fee on incoming and outward transfers, with all foreign bank costs included.