Introduction
Welcome! This reference page lists our APIs and the detailed documentations pertained to each. Our APIs implement REST with standard HTTP codes, verbs and authentication methods and they are documented using the OpenAPI 3.0 standard. Read on to get more information about our API guidelines!
Authentication
OAuth 2.0 is an industry standard used to protect access to APIs. SWIFT OAuth Token API is used to issue tokens needed to access other SWIFT API products. Depending on the API product you are trying to access, you will be using one of the two types of OAuth, Password Grant Type or JWT Bearer Token Grant Type. Check the securitySchemes defined in the OpenAPI specification to find out which grant type and credential you should use for the API you want to consume.
Versions
SWIFT uses semantic versioning for our APIs. We will bump up the MAJOR version when a "breaking change" is made to the API, MINOR version number will be incremented when a functional "non-breaking change" is made to the API and "PATCH" version number will be incremented when a bug fix "non-breaking change" is made to the API.
We adopted the URI versioning approach where MAJOR version number is expected to be in the URL.
Errors
SWIFT uses industry best practices to handle errors. You can expect three outcomes when interacting with our APIs. HTTP status code 2XX
indicates success, 4XX
indicates an error due to information provided by the client application, 5XX
indicates an error with the server.
Pagination
When making an API call to a resource like /payments/changed/transactions, the number of results returned can be very large. To make results easier to handle and to reduce latency and the amount of bandwidth consumed, results are paginated.
There are two pagination behaviors supported by SWIFT APIs. GPI APIs support maximum_number
and next
query parameters. If there are more resource objects to be fetched than permitted by maximum_number
, a next
token is returned to fetch the next set of resource objects. Other SWIFT APIs support limit
and offset
query parameters. If there are more resource objects to be fetched than permitted by limit
, a next
key is returned whose value is a subpath to be used in the subsequent request. Additional keys are also returned such as self
, previous
, first
, last
and pageof
.
Now you have everything you need to know about our API guidelines, be sure to check out the next section Getting Started with a step-by-step guide on how to kick off your SWIFT API journey!
Getting Started
Step 1: Browse our APIs
The SWIFT Developer Portal offers a range of API services that help remove the friction from global transactions. Feel free to browse and learn more about our APIs here. You can also check out our API Playground to explore a number of API use cases in order to find the API that suits your needs best.
Step 2: Create your App
Creating your own application allows you to generate a set of credentials to access the APIs in our sandbox and production environments.
- Create an account
If you have an account on SWIFT.com, you can use it to sign in directly.
- Create an App
We recommend one API product per App.
You are responsible for securing your credentials on your premises and within your client applications. Find out how to use the credentials to access APIs on our SWIFT OAuth Token API page.
Once you create an App, its status will be set to “Sandbox” and its credentials will be valid in the sandbox environment. You can promote your application to the production environments when you are ready.
Step 3: Try out an API in our sandbox
You can try out any API in our freely accessible sandbox environment with the sandbox URL https://sandbox.swift.com
.
We also provide postman collections for each API product to help you explore the use cases covered in the sandbox environment, more details can be found in the Getting started with Postman page.
To access the sandbox APIs, you will need to generate an OAuth token:
Application credentials:
consumer-key
andconsumer-secret
from the App you createdSandbox credentials:
Sandbox License ID:
sandbox-id
Sandbox License Key:
sandbox-key
Sandbox self-signed ceritificate: demo.jks
For information on how to use these credentials to generate an OAuth token, please see the SWIFT OAuth Token API page.
Step 4: Promote your App to live!
When you’re ready to use your App in the production environment, you can promote your App from the “sandbox” to the “live” status on the SWIFT Developer Portal.
To do this, you can choose one of the options listed below depending on the API product you have selected in your App.
If your app contains an API product (i.e. GPI API) that authenticates and authorises using OAuth - JWT bearer grant type:
- Go to Contact Us
- Choose Request to promote App as Subject from the dropdown list
- Enter your app name and specify the environment (Pilot or Live) to which the app should be promoted
- Click Submit
If your app contains an API product (i.e.KYC Registry API) that authenticates and authorises using OAuth - Password grant type:
- Go to My Apps
- Select the App you want to Promote
- Click Promote App
- Verify information in the pop up window
- To confirm, click Promote
SDK
Build your application with SWIFT SDK to make coding easier. SWIFT SDK takes care of the lower-level plumbing including authentication, authorization, signing and error handling. In addition, it provides a number of value-added services such as schema validation, monitoring, end-to-end testing and ready to use API use cases. SWIFT SDK currently supports APIs for accessing customer credit transfer, instant payments, stop and recall, case resolution, cover payments, financial institution transfer, gpi for corporates, pay and trace, inbound payments, pre-validation, KYC Registry, SWIFTRef, SWIFTRef Automated Download, Banking Analytics and Compliance Analytics services.
Microgateway
Use SWIFT Microgateway to benefit from the full range of API-based services available on SWIFT. SWIFT Microgateway is a software product that allows firms to configure, manage, and monitor all API calls they make on the platform. In the future, the Microgateway will enable you to expose your own APIs on SWIFT, allowing you to offer your services to our unique community of more than 11,000 financial institutions located in over 200 countries.
GPI
Overview
APIs in this category are offered via the secure SWIFT network (MV-SIPN). Access to highly confidential GPI data requires API client to estabilish a secure session with the API service via the following options: SWIFT SDK and SWIFT Microgateway for API v4 or higher, gpi Connector for API v3 or lower.
gpi API
gpi v2 will be deprecated with the release of gpi v4. View the Announcement
This set of APIs provide operations for financial institutions to access and update payment transaction information.
Sign in to access our toolbox section to download the specification and other related information.
Try the APIs in the sandbox with Postman or clone the gpi v4 demo app.
SLVP API
The SWIFT for Low value cross-border payments (SLVP) API enables SLVP participants to provide status updates via API to the SWIFT gpi Tracker for their SLVP transactions.
g4C API
The API documentation provides detailed information on how to retrieve a corporate payment transaction using API.
Sign in to access our toolbox section to download the specification and other related information.
gCase API
These APIs allow beneficiary and intermediary banks to manage case investigations quickly, reducing the number of manual queries.
Sign in to access our toolbox section to download the specification and other related information.
Pre-Validation
Overview
APIs in this category are offered via the internet and the secure SWIFT network (MV-SIPN).
Payment Pre-validation
Payment Pre-validation Data Provider
Compliance
Overview
APIs in this category are offered via the internet.
SWIFT KYC Registry API
Check KYC Registry API Sandbox Guide to learn more about the sandbox.
Compliance Analytics API
The Compliance Analytics API allows you to programmatically access your Compliance Analytics data and automate your financial crime-related use cases.
RefData
Overview
APIs in this category are offered via the internet.
SWIFTRef API
The API documentation provides detailed information on how to retrieve reference data using APIs.
Sign in to access our toolbox section to download the specification and other related information.
Business Intelligence
Overview
APIs in this category are offered via the internet.
Banking Analytics API
SWIFT Banking Analytics API enables institutions to retrieve their own SWIFT traffic data and the SWIFT totals, extending to the level of value and currency per market.
Observer Analytics API
The Observer Analytics API enables institutions to access and integrate payments data enriched with Observer computation on speed, fees, end-to-end routing, gpi KPIs, and SWIFT Totals per market.
Notification Service
Notification API
The Notification API allows clients to subscribe and receive notifications to the SWIFT services they use via multiple delivery channel(s).