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The Times of India
The Times of India
Business
TIMESOFINDIA.COM

Explained: How Russia has been preparing for a SWIFT ban since 2014

Russia United States SWIFT Iran Ukraine Britain Canada Europe European Union New Delhi

NEW DELHI: The United States, Britain, Europe and Canada announced new sanctions on Russia on Saturday - including blocking certain lenders' access to the SWIFT international payment system - following Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Thursday.

SWIFT, which stands for ‘Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, is not a financial institution but rather a global messaging system relaying instructions from one bank to another. In 1973, over 200 banks from 15 countries got together and created a co-operative to solve the problem of communicating to each other about cross-border payments. So, SWIFT is not a payment system at all and cannot actually move money, What it does do is offer a secure platform to communicate payment instructions from one bank to another.

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