The head of Russia's second largest bank: SWIFT must be destroyed

According to Tasnim news agency, citing Rashatudi, the head of Russia's second largest bank emphasized that it is vital for Russia and its trading partners to move away from conducting financial transactions through Western payment systems, including SWIFT.

On Thursday, at the Data Fusion 2024 conference, Andrey Kostin, CEO of VTB Bank, called for the promotion of digital financial settlement in Russia and allied countries.

He emphasized that such an action will end the dominance of the dollar in the world and gain complete sovereignty in the financial sector.

“Swift has announced plans to make digital payments soon, but we have to remove SWIFT from our settlements,” said the banking executive.

Emphasizing the important work that the Central Bank of Russia is doing to achieve this goal, he added: We should completely get away from it and involve our partners in this matter.

According to Kostin, VTB Bank is currently working on a pilot project to popularize the general use of the digital ruble, including in cross-border payments.

Referring to Russian financial systems, including Mir cards, he said: At a time when many of our colleagues in the production (and industry) sector were happy to use French engines in domestic airplanes or use German gearboxes in cars, the Central Bank of Russia firmly sought to create an independent (financial) system.

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