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02/27/2022

Understanding SWIFT

This is why it matters in the Russia-Ukraine war

As the United States, Canada and European allies prepared to step up pressure on Russian financial institutions this weekend, they vowed to cut some banks off from the SWIFT messaging system, a network that connects banks around the world and is considered the backbone of international finance.

Whether to target Russia through SWIFT was an initial point of division among Western nations on sanctions in the Ukraine crisis, with the French finance minister calling a move to cut Russia off from the mechanism a “financial nuclear weapon.”

Here’s what you need to know about SWIFT and the debate about whether to pressure the network to exclude Russian financial institutions.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Washington Post.

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