Reply to "If things go smoothly, Snow White will have a new home in Malaysia"

I've been reading all of these horror stories regarding wire transfers and thought I should offer some words of advice, as wiring funds, internationally, is part of my day-to-day business. Even post-911, I can usually wire funds from SE Asia to the USA in less than 24 hours. Most problems arise because of the different "systems" used to wire money around the world, resulting in incomplete instructions. A teller at Bank of America likely has no clue, when it comes to wire transfers. If you ask the teller (or a CSR on the phone) for your WT info, she gives you an ABA number, which means nothing to a bank in Malaysia. The bank in Malaysia needs a SWIFT code. They might contact the receiving bank in the USA, they might try to figure it out or they might ask their customer to get it, but when the two parties are 15 time zones apart, sending info back and forth can take days.

The way to eliminate this problem is to do some work in advance. Ask the sending bank what information they need to perform a wire transfer then, go to the receiving bank and ask them for it. At both ends, this will usually involve tellers calling the bank's wire transfer dept to get the info. If the receiving bank uses a different system, you need that info too. Then, pile all of the info into the sending bank's wire transfer instruction form. This form is usually an electronic template on a computer screen, so it won't accept data that it doesn't expect; however, there's usually a comment section at the bottom of the template. Have the bank put all the other info into the comment section. As an example, North American banks don't usually have a line for the SWIFT code or an IBAN code, which is usually important information for non-North American banks. Conversely, a Malaysian bank won't be able to input Bank of America's ABA number. Simply have the bank put the extra info into the comment section of the transfer. Put the address of the beneficiary into the comment section too. You can never put too much info into a wire but putting too little info into a wire can slow things down significantly.

Also, there is always an official document that's produced when funds have left the sending institution. It's called the MT103. Ask for a copy. If the transfer doesn't arrive on time, have your branch send it to their wire transfer dept to track the transfer. It's also proof that the transfer's been done.