Russian president calls for alternatives to SWIFT

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for new independent financial platforms for international settlements, stressing that the emergence of such networks is certain but will require effort from multiple countries.

Moscow has been promoting its own domestic payment system as a reliable alternative to SWIFT since many of the country’s banks were disconnected from the Western financial network earlier this year.

“Russia believes that the process of establishing new international financial platforms is inevitable. Such platforms should be outside national jurisdictions, be secure, depoliticized, automated and independent of any single control center,” Putin said on Thursday at a meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club.

He noted that the global economy should be more open and unbiased, adding that alternative and decentralized financial systems would eliminate the possibility of manipulating the global financial infrastructure and allow efficient, profitable and safe settlement of international transactions.

Russia’s SPFS interbank messaging system was created in late 2014 in response to the first wave of sanctions over Ukraine. It ensures the transfer of financial messages between banks both inside and outside the country.

Moscow also accelerated efforts to move away from the US dollar and the euro towards settlements using national currencies.

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