Loading ...De-Dollarization Accelerates: Russia Launches SWIFT-Alternative Linking 91 Entities
Tyler Durden’s pictureSubmitted by Tyler Durden on 02/18/2015 23:55 -0500
Back in 2013, The NSA was first exposed for secretly ‘monitoring’ the SWIFT payments flows. This appears to have been among the last straws for Russia (and others) as far as both NSA spying and dollar domination.
Last year, following threats to remove Russia from SWIFT by the UK, (which SWIFT rapidly distanced its ‘independent-self’ from), Russia (and China) announced plans to create its own de-dollarized version. In November, Russia detailed the SWIFT-alternative’s launch date around May 2015, and just last month, Medvedev warned of “unlimited reaction” if Russia was cut off from the SWIFT payments system.
So the news this week that Russia has launched its own ‘SWIFT’-alternative, linking 91 credit institutions initially, suggests de-dollarization is considerably further along than many expected (especially as Russia dumps US Treasuries at a record pace).