Banking infrastructure

[btcmind]

Any banking experts here?

How does SWIFT work? It's a pure X25 protocol, so there are no measures to reduce counterparty risk? Are there countries which are not part of SWIFT? Does SWIFT define what a bank is depending on the jurisdiction?

[Bitcoinpro]

SWIFT moved to its current IP network infrastructure, known as SWIFTNet, from 2001 to 2005,[9] providing a total replacement of the previous X.25 infrastructure

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_for_Worldwide_Interbank_Financial_Telecommunication