Iran's Proposal to Set Up SWIFT Analogue Added to BRICS Agenda

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The BRICS leadership has put on the agenda the Iranian central bank's proposal to set up the group's own equivalent to the SWIFT payment system and create an organization to fight money laundering and terrorist financing that would be similar to the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

"The proposals of the Iranian central bank on the creation of a system for exchanging financial messages between members of the organization [similar to SWIFT], combating money laundering and financing of terrorism [similar to FATF] and international credit rating institutions for BRICS members were accepted by the organization on the agenda," Deputy Head of Iranian Central Bank Mohsen Karimi was quoted as saying by the IRNA news agency.

The BRICS member states, as the largest emerging economies, need to establish a settlement mechanism to achieve a unified financial system, in which "the Iranian side can play a huge role," he added.

Iran, with its financial system hit hard by Western sanctions and cut off from the SWIFT payment system in March 2012, has long sought the creation of an international payment system alternative to SWIFT. An array of Russian banks were also disconnected from the SWIFT system following the launch of the special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. Since then, the two countries have been making efforts to find alternatives or create them.

In January, Russian Central Bank Head Elvira Nabiullina said that Russia was discussing with other BRICS countries the interaction of national financial message transmission systems, and 159 foreign participants from 20 countries had already joined the Russian platform.

On January 1, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia officially became full members of the BRICS group. Before that, the bloc consisted of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

SWIFT is the world's main international payment system. In 2014, after the first wave of anti-Russia sanctions, several countries launched work on developing their own payment systems. The Bank of Russia created the SPFS system, which ensures uninterrupted transmission of financial messages within and outside the country, while China launched the CIPS system.