FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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West's SWIFT sanctions on Russia take effect

West's SWIFT sanctions on Russia take effect

Sanctions jointly imposed by the United States and other Western countries to remove some Russian banks from SWIFT - the payment system used for most international financial transactions - took effect on Saturday.

On Feb 26, the White House announced that the United States, joined by European nations and Canada, would remove some Russian banks from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), a major move to escalate the West's economic sanctions against Moscow for its ongoing military operations in Ukraine.

Starting Saturday, Russia's largest financial institutions, including its two largest banks, VTB Bank and Sberbank, will no longer be permitted to process payments through the SWIFT system.

Saturday also marks the deadline for all U.S. financial institutions to close any correspondent or payable-through accounts and reject any future transactions with Sberbank.

The move has been followed by other countries and regions.

On March 2, the European Union announced a list of Russian banks to be excluded from SWIFT, and the relevant measures took effect on March 12.

On March 24, Washington said it would expand sanctions on Russian business entities and individuals.

The Swiss government said it had frozen over 6 billion U.S. dollars' worth of Russian assets in Switzerland.

On March 25, Japan announced extra sanctions against Russia, including freezing more Russian assets and prohibiting exports to Russian organizations.

As part of countermeasures against these Western sanctions, Russia has said it will require Europe to pay in rubles for gas.

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