Although various sanctions have been imposed on Russia, but there is something that the United States and the European Union (EU) cannot implement.
President Joe Biden said on Thursday that they would not disconnect Russia from the global interbank payment system SWIFT as part of sanctions against Moscow for attacking Ukraine.
He added that the US and other countries failed to reach an agreement to take the measure because the sanctions imposed on Russian banks outweighed the impact of Russia's cuts from SWIFT.
SWIFT, stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, is based in Belgium and handles payment requests and messages between 11,000 financial institutions worldwide.
In fact, before the sanctions were dropped there were several EU sources who said that the bloc was unlikely to agree to the move despite pressure from various quarters to do so.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the country was opposed to cutting Russia's access to the payment system, but did not rule out the possibility they would take such a decision if necessary.
Other EU member states are reluctant to make such a move because, although it would severely affect Russian banks, it would make it difficult for European creditors to get their money back and Russia may have built an alternative payment system if blocked.
For the record, data from the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) shows that European lenders hold the largest share of nearly $ 30 billion in foreign bank exposures to Russia.
