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SWIFT-GWPayments

SWIFT Gateway Connection Timeout

The financial entity's SWIFT Alliance gateway cannot establish or maintain a session with the SWIFT network, halting cross-border payment message transmission.

Root Cause & Remediation

Network routing change, HSM failure, expired SWIFT PKI certificate, or a misconfigured firewall rule blocking port 443/3300 to the SWIFT service bureau. Upgrades to SWIFTNet Link or the Alliance software can also introduce connectivity regressions.

Remediation steps

  1. 1Verify HSM status and connectivity to the SWIFT Alliance Access or Entry server.
  2. 2Check PKI certificate expiry for the BIC-level and RMA certificates in the SWIFT PKI portal.
  3. 3Confirm firewall rules allow outbound traffic to the assigned SWIFTNet IP ranges on the correct ports.
  4. 4Review SWIFTNet Link logs for TLS handshake errors or session rejection codes.
  5. 5Engage SWIFT Customer Support with the gateway reference number if the issue persists beyond 15 minutes.

DORA Risk Matrix

Typical classification
MAJOR INCIDENT
Likelihood
Medium
Blast radius
All cross-border SEPA, TARGET2, and correspondent banking flows are blocked.
CIF impact
Payment settlement halts immediately; queued transactions age toward settlement cut-offs.
Analyst notes
SWIFT is almost always a critical or important function. Even a 30-minute outage near a settlement window can trigger the CIF downtime threshold under Art. 9(3) of Reg. 2024/1772.

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