<p>If you're just trying to understand the volume of electronic transactions generally to an order of magnitude, it's in the quadrillions of dollars per year. According to <a href="https://www.fincen.gov/news_room/rp/files/Appendix_D.pdf" rel="noreferrer">this document</a> from the US Treasury, SWIFT handles about \$5 trillion per day, or given about 250 business days per year, about \$1.25 quadrillion dollars a year. </p>

<p>Similarly, <a href="https://www.theclearinghouse.org/payments/chips/helpful-info" rel="noreferrer">CHIPS</a> handles about \$400 trillion per year, and <a href="https://www.frbservices.org/operations/fedwire/fedwire_funds_services_statistics.html" rel="noreferrer">Fedwire</a> handles around \$900 trillion per year (most of both of these arise out of SWIFT messages). These transactions make up a large fraction of electronic transactions in the world, so it's safe to assume that the global total isn't much more than a few quadrillion dollars a year.</p>

<p>SWIFT payment message volumes are usually <a href="http://www.swift.com/about_swift/company_information/fin_traffic_new" rel="noreferrer">around 11.5 million per day</a>, giving an average payment size of around \$45,000— though if one considers the structure of the payments system, it's evident that there's a very wide distribution of payments sizes, so this average isn't particularly representative.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-11-17T04:46:27.887Z
"the global total isn't much more than a few quadrillion dollars a year" - comedy!
B T
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-11-17T04:49:55.613Z
Oh would you mind adding information about the number of transactions to this answer? Looks like your links have that info too, and its pretty relevant. Looks like its on the order of hundreds of millions of transactions.
B T
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-11-17T13:27:54.957Z
@BT— Sure! Done.
dismalscience
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-11-16T03:42:02.560Z
2015-11-17T13:24:48.830Z
2015-11-17T13:24:48.830Z
dismalscience
<p>How much money is wire transferred every year worldwide? Estimates are fine.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-11-15T13:30:48.377Z
What constitutes a "wire transfer" for the purpose of this question? Do you just mean an electronic transfer, or do you mean the specific alternative to ACH that is provided as a retail bank service?
dismalscience
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-11-15T20:54:10.973Z
I'm not picky, I'm just curious about the general magnitude of these kinds of things.
B T
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-11-17T14:04:20.457Z
[Statistics for the UK](http://www.fasterpayments.org.uk/sites/default/files/Payment%20Statistics%20%28Annual%20Summary%29.pdf) The total for 2014 is £73 trillion, which fits with dismalscience's reckoning
paj28
<banking><money>
How much money is wire transferred every year worldwide?
B T
# How much money is wire transferred every year worldwide?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-11-15)

How much money is wire transferred every year worldwide? Estimates are fine.

**Tags:** banking, money

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: What constitutes a "wire transfer" for the purpose of this question? Do you just mean an electronic transfer, or do you mean the specific alternative to ACH that is provided as a retail bank service?  
> **username_0**: I'm not picky, I'm just curious about the general magnitude of these kinds of things.  
> **username_2**: [Statistics for the UK](http://www.fasterpayments.org.uk/sites/default/files/Payment%20Statistics%20%28Annual%20Summary%29.pdf) The total for 2014 is £73 trillion, which fits with username_1's reckoning  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2015-11-16. Score: 11 | Accepted answer

If you're just trying to understand the volume of electronic transactions generally to an order of magnitude, it's in the quadrillions of dollars per year. According to [this document](https://www.fincen.gov/news_room/rp/files/Appendix_D.pdf) from the US Treasury, SWIFT handles about \$5 trillion per day, or given about 250 business days per year, about \$1.25 quadrillion dollars a year.

Similarly, [CHIPS](https://www.theclearinghouse.org/payments/chips/helpful-info) handles about \$400 trillion per year, and [Fedwire](https://www.frbservices.org/operations/fedwire/fedwire_funds_services_statistics.html) handles around \$900 trillion per year (most of both of these arise out of SWIFT messages). These transactions make up a large fraction of electronic transactions in the world, so it's safe to assume that the global total isn't much more than a few quadrillion dollars a year.

SWIFT payment message volumes are usually [around 11.5 million per day](http://www.swift.com/about_swift/company_information/fin_traffic_new), giving an average payment size of around \$45,000— though if one considers the structure of the payments system, it's evident that there's a very wide distribution of payments sizes, so this average isn't particularly representative.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: "the global total isn't much more than a few quadrillion dollars a year" - comedy!  
> **username_0**: Oh would you mind adding information about the number of transactions to this answer? Looks like your links have that info too, and its pretty relevant. Looks like its on the order of hundreds of millions of transactions.  
> **username_1**: @BT— Sure! Done.  

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