Why would a recipient bank reject an incoming international transfer?

Question

I tried to make a SWIFT international money transfer from my Revolut bank account based in Europe to my US brokerage account, and my US brokerage account (Charles Schwab) rejected the transfer, according to Revolut. Why would a recipient bank reject an incoming transfer?

I understand they may reject outbound transfers, e.g. for security purposes, but I don't see any risk in receiving money.

Notes:

• The recipient financial institution (Charles Schwab) did accept a smaller transfer from Revolut. (using the same sender and recipient accounts: only The amount of the transfer and the time of the transfer changed).
• The recipient bank (Charles Schwab) did accept a larger transfer from a US financial institution (Fidelity).
• I prefer to make a large transfer instead of cutting it into small transfers to reduce the transaction fees.
• The transfer is made in USD: there is no currency exchange involved. My Revolut account in Europe contains USD.

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Revolut screenshot stating that my US brokerage account (Charles Schwab) rejected the transfer:

Answer 1

You'd need to speak with the receiving bank to see why they rejected this particular transfer.

In general, though, there are many reasons that a bank might reject an incoming transfer. There are mundane administrative reasons-- something on the transfer didn't match their records, for example. But it is also possible that something about the transfer tripped some of their fraud or money laundering rules. Even if the bank isn't on the hook for taking the loss if the sender tries to reverse a fraudulent transaction, they don't want the hassle and reputational cost of working with fraudsters. And they are certainly potentially liable if the incoming transfer is part of a money laundering operation that they should have detected.

Answer 2

The recipient financial institution (Charles Schwab) did accept a smaller transfer from Revolut. (using the same sender and recipient accounts: only the amount of the transfer and the time of the transfer changed).

The quote above was the incorrect implicit assumption. It turns out that a small amount may be transferred by the originator bank via a different path than a large transfer. The recipient information needed for the path used for the small amount transfer may differ from the path used for the large amount transfer, thereby potentially causing the benefactor bank to reject the transfer due to incorrect recipient information (if the recipient information given the originator bank for the large transfer was the same as the recipient information used for the small transfer).

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Longer explanation with the Revolut UAB->Schwab example:

That was the key in this international transfer from Revolut UAB (Lithuania) to Charles Schwab (USA). For such transfers, Revolut UAB may use SWIFT transfer, or a direct deposit via CurrencyCloud, depending on the amount of the transfer. In my case, a 17.5kUSD transfer was sent as a direct deposit via CurrencyCloud (which was a successful transfer), whereas Revolut attempted to send 18.2 kUSD with a SWIFT transfer.

However, the recipient information may change depending on whether the transfer is done with SWIFT or direct deposit. For example, with Charles Schwab or Fidelity Investments, the routing and account numbers used for a direct deposit is different than the information needed for a SWIFT transfer (Charles Schwab wire information; Fidelity wire information). Hence, the benefactor bank rejecting the incoming transfer due to incorrect recipient information.