MOSCOW, September 17. /TASS/. An equivalent of Belgian SWIFT has practically been created in Russia, Central Bank Chief Elvira Nabiullina said on Thursday.

"Work is on track," the Central Bank Chief said. "As far as financial messages transmission is concerned, we have practically set up a SWIFT counterpart in Russia," Nabiullina said. The system contemplates competitive tariffs and the regulator is ready to develop and improve this service, she added.

Several dozen banks are ready to use it, Nabiullina said. The head of the Central Bank said that the SWIFT equivalent is being developed with maximum use of Russian IT technologies. "Many complained our microelectronics is poorly developing and so on, but demand is needed to develop domestic production. We are generating such demand," Nabiullina said.

It was reported earlier that Russia’s SWIFT counterpart would be launched in fall 2015. The need for having a domestic SWIFT and a national payment system became more acute after sector sanctions were imposed against Russia last year.

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) transmits 1.8 billion communications a year, remitting payment orders worth $6 trillion a day. The system comprises over 9,000 banks from 209 countries.

Under the SWIFT charter, groups of members and users are set up in each country covered by the system. In Russia, these groups are united in the RosSWIFT association.