Global networks of money and information at the crossroads

Correspondent banking and SWIFT

Bibliographic Data

ID4263184
AuthorsG Robinson (0000-0002-7582-2557, Department of Urban Development and Mobility Luxembourg Institute of Socio‐Economic Research (LISER) Esch‐sur‐Alzette Luxembourg), Sabine Dörry (0000-0002-3599-8371, Department of Urban Development and Mobility Luxembourg Institute of Socio‐Economic Research (LISER) Esch‐sur‐Alzette Luxembourg, corresponding author), Ben Derudder (0000-0001-6195-8544, Department of Geography Ghent University Gent Belgium)
Year2023
Volume23
Issue2
Pages478-493
Publication date2023-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGlobal Networks (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1470-2266 • E-ISSN: 1471-0374
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/glob.12408
OpenAlexW4306412121
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited64

This article explores how transaction information is a fundamental element enabling and fostering global flows of money. Financial systems, constructed around account-based money, require infrastructure, which is separated into two parts: messaging and settlement, performed via trusted agents. This separation has allowed the geographical expansion of banking, and to this day constitutes a key architecture of increasingly global networks of money. Focusing on the correspondent banking system and the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, this article demonstrates the workings of this infrastructure in cross-border payments and in enacting economic sanctions. This sociotechnical infrastructure is a crucial yet overlooked area of global banking, which makes global economic and financial activity possible in the first place. Importantly, by analysing the organizational architecture of the global payments system and including the actors and agencies within it, we elucidate the (changing) relationships between data/information, geographies and power, contributing to the formation of a literature that conceptualizes financial infrastructure

Business · Commerce · Database transaction · Electronic money · Financial inclusion · Financial market · Financial services · Financial transaction · Global financial system · Information infrastructure · Information system · Payment · Payment service provider · Political science · Swift · Banking stability, regulation, efficiency · Computer Science · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Engineering · Global Financial Regulation and Crises · Architecture · Finance

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access