U.S., U.K. and EU Decided to Cut Off Select Russian Banks from SWIFT System
Posted on 02/27/2022
The United States, European Union, and United Kingdom, agreed to remove key Russian banks out of the Belgium-based SWIFT financial messaging system.
The removal from SWIFT was considered on Russia when Russia invaded and annexed Crimea from the Ukraine back in 2014. At that time, Russia declared moving them out of SWIFT would be equivalent to a declaration of war. Russia has tried to develop its own financial transfer system with limited success. Getting the European Union on the same page as the U.S. for sanctioning Russia through SWIFT had been a challenging process since EU trade with Russia amounted to 80 billion euros. Germany warned of the “massive impact” on German business if Russia were banned from SWIFT.
The U.S. succeeded before in persuading the SWIFT system to remove Iran over its nuclear program.
There has been no final word on if the Russian Central Bank will be removed from SWIFT.
The U.K. has followed the U.S. steps in sanctioning more Russian entities, as well as the Russian President. The U.K. government recently sanctioned Black Sea Bank Development and Reconstruction, PJSC Promsvyazbank, Industrial Savings Bank (JSC CB IS Bank) and Bank Rossiya (Bank of Russia).
