Solvay Castle

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift), legally S.W.I.F.T. SC, is a Belgian cooperative society providing services related to the execution of financial transactions and payments between certain banks worldwide. Its principal function is to serve as the main messaging network through which international payments are initiated. It also sells software and services to financial institutions, mostly for use on its proprietary "SWIFTNet", and assigns ISO 9362 Business Identifier Codes (BICs), popularly known as "Swift codes". The Swift messaging network is a component of the global payments system. Swift acts as a carrier of the "messages containing the payment instructions between financial institutions involved in a transaction". However, the organisation does not manage accounts on behalf of individuals or financial institutions, and it does not hold funds from third parties. It also does not perform clearing or settlement functions. After a payment has been initiated, it must be settled through a payment system, such as TARGET2 in Europe. In the context of cross-border transactions, this step often takes place through correspondent banking accounts that financial institutions have with each other.As of 2018, around half of all high-value cross-border payments worldwide used the Swift network, and in 2015, Swift linked more than 11,000 financial institutions in over 200 countries and territories, who were exchanging an average of over 32 million messages per day (compared to an average of 2.4 million daily messages in 1995).Though widely utilised, Swift has been criticised for its inefficiency. In 2018, the London-based Financial Times noted that transfers frequently "pass through multiple banks before reaching their final destination, making them time-consuming, costly and lacking transparency on how much money will arrive at the other end". Swift has since introduced an improved service called "Global Payments Innovation" (GPI), claiming it was adopted by 165 banks and was completing half its payments within 30 minutes. The new standard which included Swift Go was supposed to be utilised in receiving and transferring low-value international payments. One of the significant changes was the transaction amount, which would not differ from start to the end. However, as of 2023, uptake was mixed. For instance, Alisherov Eraj, Alif Bank Treasury Department Swift Transfers & Banking Relationship Expert in the Republic of Tajikistan, describes that the leading cause for the late Swift Go adoption in Tajikistan was the Core Banking System itself. To connect to Swift Go, he adds, banking system interfaces needed to be upgraded and integrate with their software to be fully compatible, this hindered many banks from adopting the technology earlier. As a cooperative society under Belgian law, Swift is owned by its member financial institutions. It is headquartered in La Hulpe, Belgium, near Brussels; its main building was designed by Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura and completed in 1989. The chairman of Swift is Graeme Munro of United Kingdom, and its CEO is Javier Pérez-Tasso of Spain. Swift hosts an annual conference, called Sibos, specifically aimed at the financial services industry.

La Hulpe (French pronunciation: [la ylp] (listen); Dutch: Terhulpen, French pronunciation: [tɛrˈɦʏlpə(n)] (listen); Walloon: L’ Elpe) is a municipality of Wallonia in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant, 20 km south-east of the centre of Brussels, but only about 3 km from the edge of the Brussels-Capital Region. On January 1, 2007, La Hulpe had a total population of 7,309. The total area is 15.60 km², including 3 km² of the Sonian Forest; this gives a population density of 463 inhabitants per km². La Hulpe still keeps two hamlets, Gaillemarde in the west and Malaise-Bakenbos in the east. The limits of the latter hamlet and of other parts of La Hulpe were modified when the linguistic border (between French and Dutch) was fixed in 1963. The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication's (SWIFT) headquarters are located in La Hulpe.

Hoeilaart (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɦuilaːrt]) is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, Belgium. The name Hoeilaart is of Gallic-Celtic origin, coming from "Ho-Lar," meaning a high clearing in the woods. Residents are called Hoeilanders or Doenders. The municipality only comprises the town of Hoeilaart proper. On January 1, 2019, Hoeilaart had a total population of 11,325. The total area is 20.43 km² which gives a population density of 493 inhabitants per km². Hoeilaart also sometimes called "The Glass Village" because of the greenhouse grape cultivation that once took place. The official language is Dutch. Local minorities consist of nationals from many European union-countries, USA and Canada, and numerous French-speakers. 38.1% in 2004 according to the birth statistics of the ONEM agency. 41.6% speak Dutch; the rest speak foreign languages.

Ohain (French pronunciation: [ɔ.ɛ̃] (listen); Walloon: Ohin) is a Belgian village and district of the municipality of Lasne, Wallonia in the province of Walloon Brabant.

The European School of Bruxelles-Argenteuil (French: École Européenne de Bruxelles-Argenteuil), also known as the EEBA, is a private, Accredited European School located on the grounds of the Château d'Argenteuil, in Waterloo, 15 km south of Brussels, Belgium. Founded in 2016, the EEBA is a partnership between the Belgian private school "Lycée Molière", and the Scandinavian School of Brussels (SSB). The EEBA, through its partnership with the SSB, offers its students the International Baccalaureate as its secondary leaving qualification, with plans to also offer the European Baccalaureate in the near future. The school caters to nursery, primary and secondary students and is equipped with facilities for boarders aged 15 and up.

The Royal Brussels Cricket Club is a cricket ground in Waterloo, Belgium, home to the Royal Brussels Cricket Club. In February 2019, it was announced that the venue would host three Twenty20 International (T20I) matches in May 2019, between Belgium and Germany.

Groenendael Priory (French: Prieuré de Groenendael; Dutch: priorij van Groenendaal; meaning, "green valley"; alternate, Gruenendale) is located in the Forest of Soignes in the municipality of Hoeilaart in the Flemish Brabant, about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) southeast of Brussels, Belgium.

The Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel is a Belgian academic institution for artistic training of young musicians, which was created by Queen Elisabeth of Belgium. It is located in Waterloo, Belgium.

The Sonian Forest or Sonian Wood (Dutch: Zoniënwoud, French: Forêt de Soignes) is a 4,421-hectare (10,920-acre) forest at the southeast edge of Brussels, Belgium. The Sonian Forest was a favorite hunting ground of the Habsburg Imperial family, and as such features prominently in some famous Renaissance works of art such as the Hunts of Maximilian tapestries in the Louvre. The forest lies in the Flemish municipalities of Sint-Genesius-Rode, Hoeilaart, Overijse, and Tervuren, in the Brussels-Capital Region municipalities of Uccle, Watermael-Boitsfort, Auderghem, and Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, and in the Walloon towns of La Hulpe and Waterloo. Thus, it stretches out over the three Belgian Regions. It is maintained by Flanders (56%), the Brussels-Capital Region (38%), and Wallonia (6%). There are some contiguous tracts of privately held forest and the Kapucijnenbos, the "Capuchin Wood", which belongs to the Royal Trust. As of 2017, parts of the Sonian Forest have been inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the only Belgian component to the multinational inscription 'Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe'.

St. John's International School is an English-language international school located in Waterloo, Belgium. The school has a student body from a very international background with 55 different nationalities represented. St. John's International School runs from day-care to 12th grade, the final year of high school. It offers the International Baccalaureate Diploma program, AP programs are also offered by the school.