Alla Bakina, the head of the Russian central bank’s national payment system department announced that Russia’s SPFS interbank messaging system has grown faster this year than ever before.
Bakina noted at a banking forum in Kazan, “The SPFS financial messaging system showed serious expansion this year, as we have more foreign participants connecting. Since the beginning of the year, more parties have joined the SPFS than in all previous years of the system’s existence.”
In the first six months of 2022, 50 new foreign financial entities joined the SPFS, which brought the total number of participating entities to 440. Bakina noted that over 100 of those entities are foreign entities from 12 countries, though the bank has a policy of not naming which institutions have joined the system.
The SPFS is a SWIFT alternative created in 2014 in response to sanctions targeting a number of Russian banks, that were levied as retaliation over Russia reunifying with Crimea. The system is a financial messaging service which ensures the secure transfer of messages between financial institutions both inside and outside of Russia.
The system’s membership received a shot in the arm when Moscow faced further sanctions over the current special military operation in Ukraine, including the disconnection of Russian banks from the SWIFT system. Moscow was able to promote the SPFS system, which was already in operation, to these institutions as a ready-made, reliable replacement for the SWIFT system.
That promotion dovetailed with Moscow’s simultaneous effort to more away from the dollar and Euro, and towards making international settlements in national currencies. Bakina said the SPFS system was invaluable to this end.
Bakina stated, “This, of course, creates a good basis for further development of settlements in national currencies, moving away from the dollar, the euro in settlements. We also see that friendly countries are becoming more willing to switch to national currencies.”
The sanctions have also helped to promote the use of the Mir bankcard system, Russia’s alternative to Visa and Mastercard. Visa and Mastercard suspended operations in Russia, as well as put a stop on all cards issued in Russia so they could not be used abroad. Bakina pointed out that a third of all bank cards in Russia are now Mir cards.
