US, EU Drop Idea of Removing Russia From SWIFT Over Ukraine

Wouldn't be in the Western financial interest.

 

Editor’s note: Hilariously how little is the West prepared to do for Kiev once the chips are down. And this is the backing Kiev has been telling Ukrainians will one day enable it to subjugate Donbass once more.


The U.S. and the European Union are no longer considering the option of unplugging Russia from the Swift international payments system if it attacks Ukraine, Handelsblatt reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the issue.

Nations involved believe that excluding Russia could destabilize financial markets in the short term and would help develop an alternative, non-Western dominated infrastructure, the German newspaper said.

Instead, Washington and Brussels are weighing targeted penalties against major Russian banks after an aggression. Germany is seeking exceptions from penalties to ensure that oil and gas payments remain possible, the paper said.

All options are still on the table, a U.S. National Security Council spokeswoman said, adding that consultations with European counterparts continue.

Many countries are opposed to cutting Russia off from the Swift system, but the option is not yet completely off the table, according to an EU diplomat who declined to be named Monday discussing confidential talks. Russian banks will, however, very likely be targeted after an attack against Ukraine, the diplomat added.

Bloomberg previously reported that cutting Russia off from Swift was seen as a red line by some major western European countries. The U.S. and its European allies have been discussing targeting several Russian banks with sanctions should Russia invade Ukraine. A number of those same European governments have also proposed carve-outs for some banks and transactions, as well as introducing some financial measures gradually.

The bulk of any EU-wide response would have to be unanimously agreed by all 27 member states.

Source: Bloomberg

6 Comments
  1. GMC says

    No Banking institutions or their tools like swift are secure if one group of super corrupt countries can use it against another country that has done absolutely nothing to deserve the Cut. In fact it now shows that Western Banking needs to be on its own – and leave te rest of the world – alone – in order to install something less corruptible.

    1. GMC says

      PS : Between the Swift BS and threatening the Sanctioning of President Putin, I believe Putin and his Generals { also to be sanctioned } might just threaten every piss ant country on his border to shape up or become a borderland for a very long time. And I hope he and Russia comes out and threatens every sleaze bag country that has taken the money from the West – esp. Georgia and Ukie ville.

    2. GMC says

      Go back to Haifa !

  2. nnn says

    Germany will go for any sanctions, stop selling gas to them for $350
    and demand spot price.

  3. Mark says

    It was always just a threat. The United States gets too much value from SWIFT, overseeing all of Russia’s major financial transactions and monitoring where money is going and to whom. If they disconnected Russia from SWIFT it would cause some inconvenience to Russia, but it would switch to alternatives and Washington would have to guess, or snoop on other countries, to learn where Russian money is moving and who is moving money in. Belgium lets the USA monitor whatever SWIFT traffic it wants to see, and since all financial swaps are converted – however briefly – to American dollars before exchange to their destination currency, it has verifiable records. If Russia switched to an alternative financial-transfer system – which it already has –

    https://www.russia-briefing.com/news/spfs-russia-s-alternative-to-swift.html/

    the USA would be essentially blind, not to mention the serious erosion in trust of SWIFT because it would be seen even by allies as a political weapon. It would probably inspire additional foreign investment in SPFS, and probably more financial institutions would connect to it as a secondary. This would result in gradual increase of its capabilities and compatibility. Too much to lose, nothing to gain.

  4. Jerry Hood says

    Rat-child greed is more than any war! Rat-child klan wants make money either way!!! The jew parasitism must survive!!!

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