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Russia has not yet received invitation to join SWIFT's European counterpart - Central Bank

The chairperson said the bank is ready to consider such an initiative

MOSCOW, October 19. /TASS/. The Central Bank has not yet received an invitation to join the European counterpart of SWIFT, Chairperson of the Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiullina said on Friday on the air with Rossiya 24 TV Channel.

"We believe such concept [of counterpart of SWIFT payment system - TASS] is feasible. As far as the European [initiative] is concerned, this is their project. We have not yet received invitations to participate in it but if they are suddenly received, we will certainly consider them," Nabiullina said.

Russia has already implemented the initiative of creating a payment system being an alternative to SWIFT and a technical opportunity has been prepared to connect foreign counterparties, she said.

"We have a complete analog of SWIFT and this is not a merely theoretical model or some tests - this is a functioning model. We have now more than 10% of all financial messages passing through the system. Banks are connected to it; corporations and treasuries have an opportunity to connect. Solutions are ready in technical terms, if foreign participants want to connect," Nabiullina noted.

SWIFT is the international interbank system of information transmission and payments. Over 11,000 financial institutions of more than 200 countries of the world are connected to it. The possibility of disconnecting Russia from SWIFT is discussed since 2014, when first anti-Russian sanctions related to the situation in Ukraine were introduced.

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