HACKER Q&A
📣 mellifluousbox

Given SPFS, would Russia care about SWIFT?


To understand the importance of SWIFT with regards to the Ukrainian-Russian war, I’m reading up on the system. In course of that I learned that Russia built SPFS [1], an alternative and compatible system, in 2014.

Could anyone comment on why cutting Russia(n banks) from SWIFT would matter, given they have SPFS anyway?

It is clear SPFS is far from being a completely compatible SWIFT alternative. But it still seems like Russia laid a reasonable groundwork for a “post-SWIFT era” and would not really care about what the media seems to consider the strongest possible sanction against it.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPFS


  👤 NicoJuicy Accepted Answer ✓
Because it's not about the protocol. It's about the countries implementing it.

+ Swift is cheap vs. Other options and the currency is stable.


👤 przeor
SPFS is implemented in one german bank, so Merkel and Putin still can trade gas behind Europe back even if they block swift