MOSCOW, April 4 The share of the dollar in settlements through the SWIFT interbank system in February amounted to 46.56% — this is the minimum since July last year, follows from the system data which were analyzed.
Over the month, the share of the “American” decreased by 0.08 percentage points, while it remained the most popular currency in the world.
The share of the second most popular currency, the euro, increased by 0.23 percentage points to 23.25%, while it has been hovering near its historical low since August.
The Chinese yuan lost 0.51 percentage points last month, its share amounting to 4%, which was the minimum in four months. The pound sterling also reduced its share in international payments — to 6.9% from 7.1% a month earlier.
But the share of the Japanese yen, on the contrary, increased — by 0.17 percentage points, to 3.73%. The top ten most popular currencies in the world include the Canadian, Australian, Hong Kong and Singapore dollars, as well as the Thai baht.
A few years ago, SWIFT was the main system for processing payments — almost all banking transactions in the world went through it. However, in 2014, when Western countries first threatened to cut Russia off from the system, alternatives began to be created. In Russia it is the Financial Message Transmission System, in China it is the System of Cross-Border Interbank Payments. India also has its own system for transfers.