Wire transfer

Wire transfer was the earliest form of electronic funds transfer, since funds have been sent by wire since the first telegraph lines were strung well over a century ago. The transfer of funds by telegraph is chiefly used to move large sums for commercial customers. Financial institutions use Fedwire, operated by the Federal Reserve System, or Bank Wire II, a service provided through a corporation owned by the banking community. Commercial banks connect their computers directly to the wire networks to speed up the process.