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Russia’s Finance Ministry seeks to impose regulation of SWIFT

The move will allow the central bank to set requirements for activity of those types of operators and responsibility for providing inadequate services

© EPA/ALI HAIDER

MOSCOW, September 04. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s Finance Ministry plans to impose regulation of the SWIFT banking transaction system, terminals of Bloomberg and Reuters, and other similar systems, according to amendments to the payment system law released Thursday on a legal information portal.

The ministry proposed introducing concepts into Russia’s legislation for companies providing information services on the financial markets and companies providing information exchange services, including information about payment transactions. The concepts are “an operator of critical infrastructure services,” which applies to the SWIFT and terminals of Bloomberg and Reuters, and “an operator of essential infrastructure services.”

The move will allow the central bank to set requirements for activity of those types of operators and responsibility for providing inadequate services.

Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev said that the ministry does not plan to introduce any responsibility for operators of critical infrastructure so far.

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