"Using modern financial technologies": the Russian Foreign Ministry urged to develop domestic analogues of SWIFT

Russia should develop its own analogues of the international interbank system of information transfer and payments (SWIFT).

This was stated in an interview with RIA Novosti by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Alexander Pankin. 

“Promoting alternative SWIFT and US-independent interbank payment and information transfer systems using modern financial technologies and solutions is also an important area of ​​work,” Pankin said.

The Deputy Foreign Minister noted that the financial messaging system developed by the Central Bank and the Transit system from the Moscow Exchange are gaining weight in this direction: ) ".

Pankin also drew attention to the "rapid development" of digital currencies and blockchain, stressing that such projects can become the basis for international settlements on a new technological basis.

“Thus, the development of alternative SWIFT systems, more technologically advanced and not claiming to monopolize this area, is not only a response to the current geopolitical reality, but also a response to the need to modernize payment methods taking into account modern advanced achievements in the digital sphere,” added is he.

Earlier, the press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov pointed out that the unreasonable and unpredictable nature of the US actions obliges Moscow to “be on the alert”.

Speaking about the possibility of disconnecting the country from SWIFT, he stressed that the Russian side monitors all potential threats.

According to the chairman of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market Anatoly Aksakov, the possible disconnection of Russia from SWIFT will negatively affect the United States itself, since the Russian Federation occupies the fourth place in terms of the volume of transactions in this system.

“If the United States nevertheless disconnects us from SWIFT, then alternative payment schemes will also be used more actively.

In particular, the blockchain system and payments in cryptocurrencies.

It is unlikely that the United States will take such a step, since in this case they will incur reputational and financial costs - disconnecting one participant from this financial chain of transactions risks turning into disruptions in the entire system, ”said the interlocutor of RT.

The international interbank system SWIFT was created in 1973.

The platform has formed unified standards for financial transactions.

At the moment, it is used by over 11 thousand credit and financial organizations in more than 200 countries of the world.

In 2014, Russia created its own "System for the transmission of financial messages", which is aimed at transferring information, both about domestic Russian settlements and foreign ones.

"The development of alternative systems is observed in the world market"

According to the director of the Institute for Economic Policy and Economic Security Problems of the Financial University, Professor Sergei Silvestrov, a commission is currently working in the US Congress, which prepares proposals for the introduction of sanctions against Russia in various areas.

According to him, we are talking about non-military hostile actions against the economy and finances of Russia.

“It is clear that the issue of SWIFT will be considered.

Although this kind of sanctions were practically not applied.

There was a short period of SWIFT blocking in 1998 due to the crisis.

There were episodes related to Iran.

But in general, this is a question of the reliability and stability of the entire world financial system.

And the termination of the work of SWIFT is really already an announcement of a kind of non-military action with great consequences, "said the interlocutor of RT.

The financier noted that the Central Bank of Russia and other financial bodies have already thought about this problem and participated in the development of an analogue of SWIFT.

“But the point is not in the technology itself, but in the fact that sanctions may be imposed on those who want to participate in the alternative system.

Because tens of thousands of financial organizations are involved there, they work according to certain regulations and rules.

And naturally, if Russian banking organizations are excluded from this system, this cannot but affect the partners, ”Silvestrov explained.

He expressed doubt that Russia will be disconnected from the SWIFT system, however, in his opinion, the Foreign Ministry demonstrates that Moscow is ready to respond to any such attempts if necessary.

In turn, Nikita Maslennikov, head of the Finance and Economics department at the Institute of Contemporary Development, also believes that disconnecting Russia from SWIFT is hardly feasible without losses for the initiators.

“In the global financial economy, today, due to progress, we are witnessing the development of alternative systems that will be competitive in the near future.

A lot of them.

The financiers are watching all this, but they are not pushing all these stories, because so far they are in the nature of "regulatory sandboxes".

They are developing.

This trend is evident today and it is understandable.

And this is only for the benefit of the global financial industry, because it makes SWIFT take care of new security standards, this increases the speed of transactions in the SWIFT system, and this, naturally, spurs competitors, "the economist emphasized.

He also noted that a worthy alternative to SWIFT already exists in the Russian financial market - a system for transmitting financial messages.

“If our disconnection from SWIFT happens, then transactions may freeze not only for hours, but also for a day. This is an unpleasant thing. But nevertheless, in the architecture of world financial markets, these alternative systems are emerging ... We must carefully monitor this, "Maslennikov said to RT.