Sberbank, Rosselkhozbank and Moscow Credit Bank have been disconnected from the SWIFT international financial messaging system since June 14.
This decision was made in early June as part of the sixth package of EU sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Earlier, VTB, Rossiya Bank, Otkritie Bank and four other banks were disconnected from the system.
Before the introduction of the sanctions, Sberbank stated that the disconnection from SWIFT would not affect domestic Russian operations, while international “basic restrictions already apply”.
The Rosselkhozbank promised that the shutdown “would not affect the quality of customer service,” and the MKB admitted that as a result of the shutdown, “the timing of overseas payments may be increased.”
SWIFT is an international financial messaging system that allows banks to make transfers to each other automatically. More than 11 thousand institutions in 200 countries are connected to SWIFT.
Since 2014, the Bank of Russia Financial Message Transmission System has been operating in Russia for domestic Russian transfers. It was created after there was talk about Russia being disconnected from SWIFT due to the war in eastern Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea.