How the ban on payments will affect the wallets of citizens
The European Union continues to strike at the Russian financial system. On June 24, he introduced the 14th package of restrictions, which included 116 citizens and organizations. Among other things, the Financial Message Transmission System (SPFS) was banned. This service was developed by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation to replace the international SWIFT system, which they tried to prohibit Russian banks from using in the West in connection with the events around Crimea. MK found out from experts how new European intrigues against the financial system of our country will affect the wallets of citizens.
The Council of the European Union introduced sanctions against the SPFS, a system created by the Bank of Russia in response to the very first wave of sanctions after the Crimean spring. According to the regulator, its users at the end of 2023 were 556 organizations, more than a quarter of them (159 companies) were counterparties from 20 countries. Until April 2022, the Bank of Russia published a detailed list of SPFS participants on its website, but then hid it after a new wave of EU sanctions against large Russian banks. Time has proven the wisdom of this decision of the regulator, since the European bureaucrats, after they failed to strangle large and medium-sized Russian banks and the Mir payment system with sanctions, remembered the Russian analogue of SWIFT — the so-called international interbank system for transmitting information and making payments.
It was precisely in order not to depend on the will of former Western partners that the Central Bank of the Russian Federation created the SPFS, but now this service has also been banned. According to the requirements of the 14th package of sanctions, EU organizations operating outside Russia will be prohibited from connecting to SPFS or similar financial messaging services. In addition, operators from Europe will be prohibited from making transactions with a number of organizations that use this service outside of Russia. Last week, when European bureaucrats discussed the possibility of introducing sanctions against the SPFS, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that the 14th package of sanctions would be aimed at “Russia’s shadow banking network abroad.”
Domestic experts differed in their assessments of the consequences of this step by European officials. “If all Russian banks were disconnected from SWIFT, it would be a big blow to our financial system,” says Maxim Osadchiy, head of the analytical department of BKF Bank. — And this measure against SPFS is, of course, unpleasant, but not critical. Russian banks that used SPFS for international payments and that do not have access to SWIFT will be forced to make these payments through banks that have such access. It is clear that the costs of international settlements for banks deprived of access to SWIFT will increase, and payment processing times will increase. Accordingly, the circle of Russian banks carrying out international payments directly, without intermediaries, will narrow. But the average Russian will not notice this effect.”
But there is another opinion. “The impact of restrictions on the wallets of Russians is realized through rising prices,” says Daria Dinets, head of the department of the Faculty of Economics of the RUDN University. — Any tightening of sanctions increases the level of “roundaboutness” of the transactions performed, and, consequently, the costs of circumventing sanctions. Traditionally, any institutional increase in costs affects current inflation.” These sanctions should be considered comprehensively, as part of a total of 14 packages, taking into account sanctions against industrial sectors. It is precisely to prevent circumvention of sanctions “in essence” that additions have been introduced in relation to the SPFS: to complicate the process of circumventing anti-Russian sanctions, or to significantly increase the cost of the process of such circumvention, which can also be seen in the ban on the use of Russian digital assets, our interlocutor emphasized.
< p>“New sanctions pose a risk for banks in the CIS countries and friendly countries that continue to work with Russia,” explains Alexander Razuvaev, a member of the supervisory board of the Guild of Financial Analysts and Risk Managers. For example, European structures may introduce additional requirements for their partners from the CIS to prove that they comply with the restrictions imposed by Brussels in relation to Moscow.
According to Associate Professor of the Department of Global Financial Markets and Fintech of the Russian Economic University. Plekhanov Denis Perepelitsa, our country’s response to such sanctions may include the introduction of countermeasures and the search for new partners for cooperation in the financial sector. Russia may try to circumvent these sanctions through the possible use of alternative mechanisms for international financial transactions, or to develop other financial systems, but all this will require time and effort.