--- title: Do $10 Trillion of Financial Transactions Flow Over Submarine Cables Each Day? description: It's regularly cited in the press that $10 trillion of financial transactions flow over submarine cables every day. But is it true? image: https://resources.telegeography.com/hubfs/2023/Blog%20Assets/AdobeStock_331809492-1.jpeg --- [![TG\_LOGO](https://resources.telegeography.com/hubfs/TeleGeography%20Hub%20Theme%20Nov%202025/images/TG_LOGO.svg)](https://www2.telegeography.com/) - [About](https://www2.telegeography.com/about-us) - [Research](https://www2.telegeography.com/our-research) - [Products](https://www2.telegeography.com/products) - [Solutions](https://www2.telegeography.com/solutions) - [Resources](https://resources.telegeography.com) [Log In](https://www.telegeography.com/login/login?service=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegeography.com%2Faccount%2Fhome%2Findex) [Contact](https://www2.telegeography.com/contact-us) ###### Data and Analysis Tools - [Cloud and WAN Research Service](https://www2.telegeography.com/cloud-and-wan-infrastructure) - [Data Center Research Service](https://www2.telegeography.com/data-center-research-service) - [GlobalComms Database](https://www2.telegeography.com/globalcomms-database-service) - [International Voice Report](https://www2.telegeography.com/telegeography-report-and-database) - [IP Networks Research Service](https://www2.telegeography.com/ip-networks-research-service) - [ISP Navigator](https://www2.telegeography.com/isp-navigatorisp-navigator) - [Transport Networks Research Service](https://www2.telegeography.com/transport-networks) - [Network Pricing Database](https://www2.telegeography.com/telegeography-pricing-database) - [WAN Cost Benchmark](https://www2.telegeography.com/wan-cost-benchmark) - [Product Passes](https://www2.telegeography.com/product-passes) ###### Consulting - [All Consulting Services](https://www2.telegeography.com/consulting) - [Submarine Cable Consulting](https://www2.telegeography.com/submarine-cable-consulting) ###### Maps - [All Map Services](https://www2.telegeography.com/map-services) - [Sponsor a Map](https://www2.telegeography.com/sponsor-a-map) - [License Map Data](https://www2.telegeography.com/license-geocoded-map-data) - [Cite a Map](https://www2.telegeography.com/cite-telegeography-map) - [Buy a Map](https://shop.telegeography.com/collections/telecom-maps/) ###### Industry - [Education](https://www2.telegeography.com/telegeography-for-education) - [Enterprise](https://www2.telegeography.com/enterprise) - [Tech](https://www2.telegeography.com/tech) - [Telecom](https://www2.telegeography.com/telecom) ###### Case Studies - [AI + Retail Telecom Data](https://www2.telegeography.com/where-to-get-global-telecom-data) - [EXA Infrastructure](https://www2.telegeography.com/exa-infrastructure-case-study) - [Orange Wholesale](https://www2.telegeography.com/orange-wholesale-case-study) - [The European Commission](https://www2.telegeography.com/the-european-commissions-data-backed-approach-to-international-policy) [Back to Resources](https://resources.telegeography.com) # Do $10 Trillion of Financial Transactions Flow Over Submarine Cables Each Day? ##### By [Tim Stronge,](https://resources.telegeography.com/author/tim-stronge) Apr 06, 2023 [Networks](https://resources.telegeography.com/tag/networks) The press regularly reports that $10 trillion of financial transactions flow over submarine cables every day. But is this true? To properly tackle this claim, we need to test two things. ## 1. Do financial institutions generally use submarine cables for transactions? The short answer is yes. Unfortunately, I can't get too specific here because a lot of TeleGeography's data on this topic is based on confidential interviews with banks and financial institutions. But trust me on this, most financial institutions are using submarine cables just like everyone else. ## 2. Are there $10 trillion per day globally in financial transactions? Here's the trickier part: calculating the volume per day in international financial transactions. Let’s examine SWIFT transactions as an example. [SWIFT](https://www.swift.com/) is the international network on which cross-border payments are initiated; the actual payments themselves are executed on entirely separate networks. In 2004, SWIFT cited 10 million messages a day and the average value per message was about $500k. This came out to about $5 trillion a day. A few months ago, SWIFT cited almost 45 million messages a day, a 4.5x increase. So if the value per message stayed the same, that implies $22.4 trillion a day. Even if the average transaction value on SWIFT has fallen, the combination of SWIFT plus other financial networks’ daily volumes would put us over the $10 trillion mark. So I think we can go ahead and safely call this myth true. [![SubOptic Myth 1](https://resources.telegeography.com/hs-fs/hubfs/2023/Blog%20Assets/Charts/SubOptic%20Myth%201.png?width=775&height=436&name=SubOptic%20Myth%201.png)](https://www2.telegeography.com/suboptic-2023) When researching this myth, I was curious about how much $10 trillion really is. This presentation covers my attempt to put it into perspective. For more like this, [download our latest mythbusters presentation slides](https://www2.telegeography.com/suboptic-2023?__hstc=45788219.c776bc4c9c506cce1c24574a3bf64ea8.1747829745172.1747829745172.1747829745172.1&__hssc=45788219.1.1747829745172&__hsfp=4009502119). ## Explore Related Content ![Will Fiber Pairs Become the New Coin of the Realm?](https://resources.telegeography.com/hubfs/background-21657_1280.jpg) ###### Blog Jun 7, 2019 #### [Will Fiber Pairs Become the New Coin of the Realm?](https://resources.telegeography.com/will-fiber-pairs-become-the-new-coin-of-the-realm) Have you heard that submarine cable fiber pairs will eventually become a standard unit of purchase? I... 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[View More by Tim Stronge](https://resources.telegeography.com/author/tim-stronge) [Read Full Article](https://resources.telegeography.com/what-we-know-and-dont-about-multiple-cable-faults-in-the-red-sea) ![Are Current Industry Practices Enough to Accommodate Future Capacity Requirements?](https://resources.telegeography.com/hubfs/ocean-1944724_1280.jpg) ###### Blog Jun 4, 2019 #### [Are Current Industry Practices Enough to Accommodate Future Capacity Requirements?](https://resources.telegeography.com/are-current-industry-practices-enough-to-accommodate-future-capacity-requirements) The submarine cable industry’s current practices will sustain our future capacity requirements. We... [View More by Tim Stronge](https://resources.telegeography.com/author/tim-stronge) [Read Full Article](https://resources.telegeography.com/are-current-industry-practices-enough-to-accommodate-future-capacity-requirements) [![TG\_LOGO\_color\_horizontal\_SIMPLIFIED 1](https://resources.telegeography.com/hubfs/TeleGeography%20Hub%20Theme%20Nov%202025/images/TG_LOGO_color_horizontal_SIMPLIFIED%201.svg)](https://www2.telegeography.com/) [Login](https://www.telegeography.com/login/login?service=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegeography.com%2Faccount%2Fhome%2Findex) [Contact Us](https://www2.telegeography.com/contact-us) ###### [About](https://www2.telegeography.com/about-us) - [Research](https://www2.telegeography.com/our-research) - [Products](https://www2.telegeography.com/products) - [Solutions](https://www2.telegeography.com/solutions) - [Demo](https://www2.telegeography.com/demo) ###### [Press](https://www2.telegeography.com/telegeography-press) - [Events](https://www2.telegeography.com/telecom-events) - [Careers](https://www2.telegeography.com/careers) ###### [Resources](https://resources.telegeography.com/) - [Podcast](https://www2.telegeography.com/telegeography-explains-the-internet-podcast) - [Newsletter](https://www2.telegeography.com/subscribe-to-telegeography-emails) - - All Rights Reserved 2026 - [Privacy Policy](https://www2.telegeography.com/privacy-policy) ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Tim Stronge", "url" : "https://resources.telegeography.com/author/tim-stronge" }, "dateModified" : "2026-02-02T12:57:01.540Z", "datePublished" : "2023-04-06T12:15:00.000Z", "headline" : "Do $10 Trillion of Financial Transactions Flow Over Submarine Cables Each Day?", "image" : [ "https://resources.telegeography.com/hubfs/2023/Blog%20Assets/AdobeStock_331809492-1.jpeg" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://resources.telegeography.com/2023-mythbusting-part-1", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://resources.telegeography.com/hubfs/assets/telegeography/telegeography-logo-blog.png" }, "name" : "TeleGeography" } } ``` ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org/", "@type" : "WebSite", "image" : "https://www2.telegeography.com/hubfs/Website/assets/logo/telegeography-logo.svg", "name" : "Do $10 Trillion of Financial Transactions Flow Over Submarine Cables Each Day?", "potentialAction" : { "@type" : "SearchAction", "query-input" : "required name=search_term_string", "target" : "{search_term_string}" }, "url" : "https://resources.telegeography.com/2023-mythbusting-part-1" } ```