US, EU agree to expel some Russian banks from SWIFT banking system

Expulsion from SWIFT will ensure that Russian banks are disconnected from the international financial system

The United States, European Union, and other Western nations have announced to cut off “certain number of Russian banks” from the SWIFT international payments system and impose restrictions on Russia’s Central Bank.

“We commit to ensuring that selected Russian banks are removed from the SWIFT messaging system. This will ensure that these banks are disconnected from the international financial system and harm their ability to operate globally,” the leaders of the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States said in a joint statement.

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), based in Belgium, facilitates transactions between more than 11,000 banks and financial institutions across the globe.

They announced the following measures:

1. Commitment to ensure that selected Russian banks are removed from the SWIFT messaging system and disconnected from the international financial system and harm their ability to operate globally.
2. Impose restrictive measures that will prevent the Russian Central Bank from deploying its international reserves in ways that undermine the impact of sanctions.
3. Action against the people and entities who facilitate the war in Ukraine and the harmful activities of the Russian government. Measures to limit the sale of citizenship — so called golden passports — that let wealthy Russians connected to the Russian government become citizens of U.S. and European countries and gain access to their financial systems.
4. Launch of a transatlantic task force that will ensure the effective implementation of Western financial sanctions by identifying and freezing the assets of sanctioned individuals and companies that exist within their jurisdictions. They announced commitment to employing sanctions and other financial and enforcement measures on additional Russian officials and elites close to the Russian government, as well as their families, and their enablers to identify and freeze the assets they hold in U.S. and European jurisdictions.
5. Step up coordination against disinformation and other forms of hybrid warfare.