WHY THE SWIFT EXCLUSION WILL MORDR:
* SWIFT, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, enables banks to talk to each other and authorize the flow of money.
* On average, 42 million payments and securities transactions are processed every day on the world’s leading platform for financial institutions.
* A secure global messaging system connects Australia and over 200 other countries to thousands of banks and other financial organizations around the world.
* Australia has strongly supported the removal of Russia’s access to the SWIFT international payments system.
* The exclusion of Russian banks from SWIFT makes it more difficult for Russian individuals and businesses to make international payments.
* “It would add to the high cost that Russia faces and would have to pay for its invasion of Ukraine,” Foreign Secretary Marise Payne said.
* But Australia could not intervene to cut Russia out of the system, because it operates as an international cooperative.
* Based in Belgium, SWIFT is a company governed by Belgian law and must comply with European Union regulations.
* The European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States issued a joint statement on further restrictive economic measures, including the banking sector.
* Some Russian banks will be removed from the SWIFT messaging system to disconnect them from the international financial system and impair their ability to operate globally.
* In addition, restrictive measures will prevent the Russian Central Bank from deploying its international reserves in such a way as to undermine the impact of sanctions.
* Measures will also limit the sale of citizenship, the so-called golden passports, which allow wealthy Russians linked to the Russian government to become citizens elsewhere and gain access to financial systems.
* A transatlantic task force will be launched next week to identify and freeze the assets of sanctioned individuals and companies.
* A SWIFT code is used to make an international payment from your account to an account abroad.
* A SWIFT code or bank identification code consists of 8 to 11 characters and is used by banks around the world to recognize each other and authorize the transfer of money.
* When Iran was kicked out of SWIFT, the country lost a third of its foreign trade and half of its oil export revenue.
Australian Associated Press
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