SWIFT ban in Russia

Europe banned several Russian banks from the SWIFT payment system after the country started a military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. This messaging network covers over 200 countries and includes an estimated 11,500 financial institutions – with several hundreds of its users located in Russia. It gives each participant its own identification code – a BIC, or Business Identifier Code. The BIC of Commerzbank, for example, is COBADEFFXXX, identifying the bank as “Commerzbank” (COBA) from Germany (DE) in Frankfurt (FF) and it being the head office (XXX). This way, financial institutions communicate transactions to each other in a standardized way. Without SWIFT, cross-border financial traffic is more difficult. As SWIFT provides a payment transaction framework - rather than actively transferring payments itself - some compare SWIFT to the Ripple (XRP) blockchain. Long regarded as a “nuclear option”, so how will a ban of such a system this impact Russia moving forward?

A hit on Russia’s economy

The aim of the ban is that Russia loses access to common transactions within the global financial market. On March 2, the EU announced it removed seven Russian banks - including VTB, Russia’s second-largest bank in terms of assets. Many analysts agree that the ban will have an impact on Russia’s economy. The Russian ruble reached historical low figures in March 2022 already and, in the long run, could lead to shortages on foreign currencies - hindering the country’s imports. How big the impact will be exactly is not clear, though, for three reasons: First, as SWIFT focuses on cross-border transactions, its market size in Russia was about 10 times smaller than that of local electronic payment processor BRPS. Second, the ruble does not rank as one of the most used currencies in the SWIFT system. Third, Russia has some of the world’s largest gold reserves and nearly equals the United States in foreign currency reserves.

A full ban?

Some also argue that the ban still leaves room for Russia. For instance, Gazprombank and Sberbank – two banks involved with gas payments – were exempt from the ban. Several EU countries, Germany especially, rely on gas imports, meaning that SWIFT payments being available to these two Russian banks specifically would still make energy payments possible. Also, some observe that a ban on SWIFT does not mean Russian firms are unable to access other cross-border payment systems. Indeed, Russia developed its own alternative to SWIFT – the System for Transfer of Financial Messages or SPFS – in 2014, meant to be used by the country’s domestic institutions and linked to Iran’s domestic financial clearing system since that country was cut off from SWIFT in 2019. No figures are available on whether Russia’s SWIFT ban in 2022 will impact the use of SPFS. There was an indirect impact elsewhere, though: Both the exchange rate of China’s yuan as well as payments-related stocks from China jumped on February 28, 2022, amid rumors that China’s cross-border payment system, CIPS, as well as China’s digital currency the e-CNY, might see more use in Russia.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no liability for the information given being complete or correct. Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date data than referenced in the text.
Published by Statista Research Department, Nov 28, 2022

Key insights

Russia's natural gas export value
55.51bn USD
Russia's main export destination for crude oil
China
Russia's biggest export partner in Europe
Italy
Get more insights

Editor’s Picks Current statistics on this topic

Export value of crude oil from Russia in 2021, by country of destination (in million U.S. dollars)

Crude Oil

Main crude oil export destinations from Russia 2021, by value

Gold reserves of largest gold holding countries worldwide as of 2nd quarter 2023 (in metric tons)

Investment Funds

Volume of gold reserves by country 2023

Average monthly nominal wage in Russia from 1995 to 2021 (in Russian rubles)

Wages & Salaries

Average nominal wage per month in Russia 1995-2021

Related topics

Recommended

2

Other interesting statistics

Contact

Get in touch with us. We are happy to help.
Statista Locations
Contact Meredith Alda
Meredith Alda
Sales Manager– Contact (United States)
Email
support@statista.com

Mon - Fri, 9am - 6pm (EST)

Contact Yolanda Mega
Yolanda Mega
Operations Manager– Contact (Asia)
Email
asia.support@statista.com

Mon - Fri, 9am - 5pm (SGT)

Contact Kisara Mizuno
Kisara Mizuno
Senior Business Development Manager– Contact (Asia)
Email
support.japan@statista.com

Mon - Fri, 10:00am - 6:00pm (JST)

Contact Lodovica Biagi
Lodovica Biagi
Director of Operations– Contact (Europe)
Email
eu.support@statista.com

Mon - Fri, 9:30am - 5pm (GMT)

Contact Carolina Dulin
Carolina Dulin
Group Director - LATAM– Contact (Latin America)
Email
latam@statista.com

Mon - Fri, 9am - 6pm (EST)

Menu