The Central Bank pointed to the political aspect in the issue of launching cross-border payments

Despite the fact that from the technical side, everything is ready for cross-border settlements in national currencies, the political aspect and fear of sanctions hinder “pressing the button” even for friendly counterparty countries of Russia, she said during a speech at SPIEF First Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Russia Olga Skorobogatova.

“Even though we had technically done a lot of integrations before the start of the special operation and the systems worked (payment systems for cross-border payments – Vedomosti), after the well-known events, some countries refused to use our integration, explaining political motives and fears of secondary sanctions” , she said.

Some friendly countries have already carried out all the necessary technical procedures and tested cross-border payments, but still have not launched them on their side, Skorobogatova noted. They are waiting for “political instructions”, which can only be given by the first person of the state, the first deputy chairman explained.

But there is also that part of the countries that “moves quite boldly” and cooperates with the Central Bank within the framework of the Financial Message Transmission System (SPFS) and the FPS, Skorobogatova noted. According to her, 14 banks from three countries have already launched work on the FPS with Russia, without naming specific countries. “So far, only our citizens can transfer their funds through the Fast Payment System to three countries, but the reverse mechanism will soon be activated,” Skorobogatova assured.

In cross-border payments for business, the Central Bank is working to establish international settlements and supports “absolutely all platforms and all solutions that may be.” And this is not only about platform-to-platform integration – if some countries are ready to offer a solution through Bridge, the Central Bank will also be technically ready to do it, Skorobogatova assured.

Also now, the Bank of Russia is discussing with a number of countries that make their own national digital currencies the issue of mutual integration without using the SWIFT international financial messaging system. “I believe that on the horizon of five years we will witness how the international payment infrastructure will move from SWIFT to the integration of national digital currencies. There will be integration between large countries. And we are running very fast here,” said Skorobogatova. This will completely change the payment infrastructure in the world, she is sure.

Many countries are actively moving towards the creation of national platforms and systems, reducing the share of using Visa and Mastercard within their countries and looking for alternatives to SWIFT, Elvira Nabiullina, Chairman of the Central Bank, noted earlier. According to her, the countries will communicate with each other, and “there will be interoperability with national payment systems or with such regional platforms.” And the integration of Russia into the world financial system and into this structure should take place, Nabiullina said.

In March 2022, the international payment systems Visa and Mastercard suspended their activities in Russia. Cards issued in Russia do not work outside the country. In 2022, the SWIFT system (its members are 11,000 financial institutions in more than 200 countries of the world) were disconnected “Sberbank“, VTBbanks “Russia”, “Opening”, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, Sovcombank and a number of other Russian banks. In Russia, since 2014, there has been an analogue of SWIFT – the Financial Message Transfer System (SPFS), 469 participants are connected to it. Of these, 115 are non-residents from 14 countries, said Alla Bakina, director of the department of the national payment system of the Bank of Russia. The list of countries connected to the SPFS has not been disclosed by the Central Bank since 2022.