Why SWIFT Holds Center Stage in Sanctioning Russia: QuickTake

One sanction that Western allies were hesitant to impose on Russia -- for fear of blowback to their own economies -- was called a “financial nuclear weapon” by France’s finance minister. That sanction is cutting off banks from SWIFT, the messaging system used by financial institutions globally to convey instructions to carry out tens of millions of transactions each day. Most major Russian banks did end up being cut off, underscoring Russia’s isolation as a global pariah and prompting its government to try to steer business with its remaining friends to its own, much smaller version of SWIFT. China, too, ...