Russian National Financial Transactions System Surpasses SWIFT In Users - Lawmaker

Umer Jamshaid Published November 01, 2018 | 07:54 PM

The Russian System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS), an equivalent of the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) system that the country's Central Bank has developed, already has more users than SWIFT has, and Russia is currently engaged in talks on coordinating the SPFS and similar systems operating in a range of countries, the chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, Anatoly Aksakov, told reporters on Thursday.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st November, 2018) The Russian System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS), an equivalent of the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) system that the country's Central Bank has developed, already has more users than SWIFT has, and Russia is currently engaged in talks on coordinating the SPFS and similar systems operating in a range of countries, the chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, Anatoly Aksakov, told reporters on Thursday.

"Our domestic system for the transfer of financial messages already has more users that SWIFT has. Talks with China, Iran, Turkey and a number of other countries are currently underway in order to coordinate our system with their systems. It is important to coordinate them technologically in order to avoid problems with domestic systems for transfer of financial messages," Aksakov said.

He added that Russia and Iran had already coordinated their cooperation mechanisms.

Aksakov said that he did not rule out the possibility to conduct direct settlements with Iranian companies.

SWIFT is used by thousands of banks and other financial institutions around the world to securely exchange messages regarding transactions.

In 2014, the Russian Central Bank decided to set up the SPFS as an alternative to SWIFT over its concerns that Russian banks could be excluded from the SWIFT system as the European Parliament urged EU states to consider this possibility.

In mid-May, Olga Skorobogatova, first deputy governor at the Russian Central Bank, said that the bank was considering the possibility of connecting tax non-residents to the SPFS, while Aksakov explained later that foreign companies and banks already could join the SPFS technically, and talks with foreign central banks were already underway.