The Central Bank named the number of countries that have connected to the Russian analogue of SWIFT

Already 20 countries have connected to the Financial Message Transmission System (SPFS) of the Bank of Russia, an analogue of SWIFT, as follows from the presentation that the first deputy chairman of the Central Bank, Vladimir Chistyukhin, presented at the international exhibition and forum “Russia”.

 

“Financial message transmission system: 557 banks and companies, of which 159 are non-residents from 20 countries,” the materials say.

In early December, the Central Bank stated that the SPFS included 150 non-residents from 16 countries, while a year earlier there were just over 100.

In 2014, when Western countries first threatened to cut Russia off from SWIFT, alternatives began to be created, including SPFS. After the start of a military special operation in Ukraine, the largest Russian banks were disconnected from SWIFT, after which SPFS traffic showed constant growth.

Thus, in early January, the deputy head of the Central Bank of Iran, Mohsen Karimi, said that Moscow and Tehran had connected their financial messaging systems and now the banks of the two countries “no longer need Switzerland” to communicate with each other.

SWIFT is an international interbank system for transmitting information and making payments, to which more than 11 thousand largest organizations are connected in almost all countries of the world. Until a few years ago, it was the primary system for processing payments, handling almost all banking transactions in the world.