Russia’s Domestic Banking Payment System, A Rival Of SWIFT, Now Includes 91 Banks

Posted by EM_Equity ⋅ February 13, 2015 ⋅ 2 Comments

Filed Under banking, Banks, De-Dollarization, Economy, EM, Emerging Markets, Finance, forex, FX, investing, Investment, Russia, Sanctions, SWIFT, U.S.

Photo courtesy of Sputnik. © SPUTNIK / MAXIM BOGODVID

The Russian Central Bank now has 91 banks that will participate in the nation’s domestic banking payment system, a rival to SWIFT, Sputnik news and RT report.

SWIFT (The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) is a Belgium-based global organization that provides services and a standardized environment for global banking communicating that allows financial institutions to send and receive messages about their transactions.

Russia’s Central Bank initiated the development of the country’s own version of the financial messaging system in response to repeated threats voiced by Moscow’s Western partners to disconnect Russia from SWIFT.

Russia joined the global interbank system in 1989 and has become one of the most active users globally, sending hundreds of thousands of messages per day.

SWIFT provides a secure communication network for more than ten thousands of financial institutions around the world, approving transactions of trillions of U.S. dollars.