MOSCOW, February 17. /TASS/. Russia can quickly join SWIFT technically; all systems are ready, head of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets Anatoly Aksakov told TASS.
"I think that [connection to] SWIFT is generally not a problem, all our systems are ready. The main thing is that they want it. Do we need it? I think it may be beneficial, but at the same time alternative systems should be developed. From my point of view, SWIFT is dying, it is already a backward technology," he said.
According to him, new options for mutual settlements have been developed. The development of digital technologies and crypto-instruments will lead to the fact that the settlement system will be built differently. "Either SWIFT will be transformed into a kind of information system that takes into account mutual settlements, or SWIFT will disappear," he stressed.
SWIFT is an international interbank system for the transfer of information and payments. Around 10,000 financial institutions in more than 200 countries are connected to it. After the introduction of sanctions, SWIFT ceased to be the main channel for Russia, where the main exchange takes place through the Financial Messaging System of the Bank of Russia (SPFS), which, according to the results of 2023, has 556 participants from 20 countries.