RBC daily: banks are testing their systems in case of disconnection from SWIFT
Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation intends to make international system of financial message exchange SWIFT set up a subsidiary in Russia. Experts believe that developments may follow the scenario of Visa and MasterCard. According to RBC, largest banks of Russia have already started testing their systems of financial information exchange not waiting for the decision of authorities.
Kostin called disconnection from SWIFT an act of aggression against Russia
Cutting Russia off SWIFT is an act of aggression against Russia, response to which must be as tough as possible, said VTB head Andrey Kostin at International Investment Forum held in Sochi.
European Parliament Calls for EU to exclude Russia from the SWIFT System
On Thursday, September 18, during the plenary session members of the European Parliament adopted a resolution on excluding Russia from the SWIFT system. Such resolutions are not mandatory; the final decision rests with the union countries and European Commission.
European Parliament calls on EU countries to exclude Russia from the SWIFT system
European Parliament calls on EU countries to consider excluding Russia from the SWIFT system, reads the approved resolution of the European Parliament plenary session.
Exclusion of Russia from SWIFT may cause a 5% GDP fall
Former Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin predicts zero growth of Russian economy in the years to come due to the low investment inflow. He believes structural issues had been obvious well before the Ukraine crisis and sanctions on Russia.
RBC: Central Bank of Russia was offered a SWIFT alternative
“National Payment Council” association suggests we switch from SWIFT to the system of the Bank of Russia and of the National Settlement Depositary of Russia. That offer was sent by the association to Georgy Luntovsky, senior vice president of the Central Bank of Russia (RBC has the letter). In the letter the association points out that it has discussed the issue with the banks and opinions of the market players have divided. In general, market players realize that it wouldn’t hurt to have alternative channels of information transfer in order to exchange financial messages within the scope of the Russian National Payment System (NPS). And dependence of depositary institutions on SWIFT within Russia isn’t deemed to be all that crucial, says the letter.
European Parliament may call on EU to consider excluding Russia from SWIFT
SWIFT is a Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. Various mass media had previously presumed block of access of Russia to SWIFT within the scope of the new European sanctions, however, later on Reuters reported that European Commission did not discuss such a measure.
CyberPlat has developed Russian analogue of SWIFT
Amid the legislation initiatives related to localization of financial transactions within Russia, CyberPlat informed Russian banks about the readiness of its product, which can be a total functional analogue of SWIFT interbank financial messaging system.
TASS: Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and “Russia” Association offer the Central Bank of Russia their own SWIFT counterpart creation scheme
Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs offers the Central Bank its own SWIFT interbank settlements system counterpart creation scheme.
Russia’s Ministry of Finance will bring SWIFT international system under control
Russia’s Ministry of Finance is looking to bring under special control international system of interbank messaging SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications). Along with Bloomberg and Reuters it is planned to be recognized as an operator of critical infrastructure, making necessary amendments in the law “On the national payment system”.