I have been makings enquiries of SCS Bank (Siam Commercial) regarding whether they are able to receive transfers direct from the UK or if a third party bank in Thailand is involved. They so far

have been unable to answer.

Does anyone here on TV have an answer from their personal knowledge and experience rather than conjecture.

Thank you

SCB has there own SWIFT code so can directly receive such - but normally foreign banks will not have direct connections with a Thai bank so a third party bank in originating country will be used.

Bangkok Bank has a branch in UK and USA so can transfer using these facilities at domestic type rates.

You should be checking with your Sending bank if they must use a correspondent bank (middle man bank) to get the funds to SCB. Many do have to use a middle man bank...talk to your Sending bank....not to SCB.

Would help if you told us which bank or banks in the UK then members can relate their personal experiences.

Certainly Lloyds International use a correspondent bank so I would guess Lloyds Uk also do. Recent threads about Nationwide suggest they do. Who specifically do you want to know about?

SCB's correspondent bank in the US, is Citi Bank, with this address:

CitiBank N.A.

SWIFT: CITIUS33

111 Wall St

New York, NY 10005

Thank you for the replies. I am attempting to discover the amount of fees that would be deducted. UK (Nationwide) will charge 20 pounds for a SWIFT transfer and the receiving bank in Thailand will charge .25% of amount coming in. So the question I have who is in the middle both UK and Thailand. I know Nationwide use a UK bank to actually make the transfer so UK involvement is understood. It is the Thai side of the equation that I am interested in. The other way I can do it is to send money by 'Faster Payments' system from Nationwide to Bangkok Bank for which cost is Nil. Bangkok Bank London will then charge pounds sterling 20 to send to their bank in Thailand for credit to my account.

Looking at the FX rates available for TT transfer SCS (Siam) are nearly always marginally better than Bangkok Bank hence why I wanted to know if SCS were able to receive direct from UK. If however there are other banks waiting to take their cut, it would be a pointless exercise to change banks (Bangkok to SCS).

Hope that clarifies why I asked my question.

The only charge at the Thai end is the .25% in range of 200min and 500max baht charge on receipt. Your UK bank needs to provide there total costs, which would expect to be 20 pounds regardless of who they use for forwarding (but has been many years since doing SWIFT so it might be a small additional charge - but your home bank should tell you that - believe I had a change from $3 to $5 at one point when my bank changed transfer process years ago). Just be sure they send UK pounds.

I use Citibank here to receive transfers of USD's to my USD account. There is no fee on this end and the only fee is from the sender eg. Wells Fargo, eTrade, etc.

I used to use Moneycorp; I would send a transfer from my RBoS account to their London office (on line). Their fee to send to my BKK bank was 8 UKP.

I then switched to Transferwise which accepts my RBoS money & relays it. They charge more than 8 UKP but the rate is far better so I'm quids in.

I received the following message from Nationwide Building Society today:

'

Thank you for your message.

I can confirm that there is a set fee of £20 from Nationwide for a SWIFT transfer then we route the payment to our agent bank HSBC London.

Then no further charges will be applied within the UK.

HSBC London will then route the payment to an intermediary between them and Siam Commercial Bank who may or may not apply a charge.

Then it is up to Siam Commercial bank as the beneficiary to apply a receiving fee or not'.

So it looks as though there is an intermediary Bank in Thailand that is the forwarding agent who may or may not apply a charge.

before passing the money to Siam Commercial who then make their appropriate charge for receiving the money.

I will now ask HSBC Thailand who their intermediary is and is there a fee payable.

Meanwhile thank you to all who contributed to helping me answer my original question.

You should be checking with your Sending bank if they must use a correspondent bank (middle man bank) to get the funds to SCB. Many do have to use a middle man bank...talk to your Sending bank....not to SCB.

it also depends what currency is sent. it goes without saying that the OP means most probably GBP but my posting might be of interest to other TV-members who make transfers in different currencies.