On Monday, the governor of the Central Bank of Russia said, “We have a system that can replace the SWIFT system internally.
“We have an alternative to the ‘Swift’ system, which can be used by internal and external customers.
This comes as Western pressures and calls are growing to stop Russia’s use of the SWIFT system, a global messaging system between banks to facilitate transfers and payments.
The SWIFT system includes 291 Russian banks, representing 1.5 percent of the volume of payments and the sixth globally in terms of messages via SWIFT.
The volume of Russia’s exports of oil, gas and minerals to the European Union and America is estimated at 700 million dollars per day.
Isolating Russia from the use of the SWIFT system would lead to capital flight and sharp fluctuations in the Russian currency, the ruble, and could lead to a contraction of the Russian economy by more than 5%.