Can wire transfers be reversed? Is there a law or regulation providing for it?

Question

Can wire transfers be reversed? Is this codified into United States or International regulation/law anywhere?

Answer 1

Unless there was a mistake that you can blame on the bank (e.g.: they copied the numbers wrong from the form you filled), wires generally cannot be reversed.

Answer 2

If the error is because of you, you can request the Bank to see if there is a possibility of recall. However this is normally available only to large corporates. There is a window by the time you submit an instruction to the bank and the time it is fulfilled and recall is technically feasible. Once the Bank has processed the instruction, reversals / recall's are not possible by Law as Bank does not know the underlying reason for making the payment.

If its a Bank's error then the obligation is with the Bank to credit back the funds to you irrespective of whether Bank is able to recover the funds from Beneficiary.