EU Plans for SWIFT Ban Spare Russian Banks With Energy Ties (1)

The European Union is discussing the exclusion of seven Russian banks from the SWIFT financial-messaging system, but the proposed list spares the nation’s biggest lender and a bank part-owned by Russian gas giant Gazprom PJSC.

VTB Bank PJSC and Bank Rossiya are among the banks which would face a ban from the messaging system that enables trillions of dollars worth of transactions around the world, according to a draft list of the proposal seen by Bloomberg. The list is being discussed by EU government envoys in Brussels on Tuesday and is subject to changes before its official release.

The ...