Iran-Russia banking SWIFT-like system launched

TEHRAN, (MNA) – An official with the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) said Sunday that Iran and Russia signed an MoU to connect their banking messaging systems through which financial and banking exchanges will be facilitated.

"The memorandum of understanding on connecting and financial messengers between Iran and Russia was signed this afternoon, and financial and banking exchanges between the two countries and 13 other countries that are present in Russia were facilitated," Mohsen Karimi, Deputy CBI governor for International Affairs, said at the signing ceremony of the MoU between Iran and Russia in Tehran on Sunday afternoon.

"Over the past year, the document of joint actions between Iran and Russia was signed by both sides and this MoU was the first action that was implemented," he also said, adding "From now on, the financial messengers of all Iranian banks and all Russian banks are linked to each other."

"According to this MoU,.. all Iranian banks and all Russian banks can have standard banking messages," the CBI official said, adding"all Iranian banks abroad and all foreign banks connected to the Russian messaging system which includes more than 100 banks in 13 foreign countries (in addition to Russia's) can exchange with Iranian banks after the platform launched."

Karimi said that the messaging system is immune to sanctions as it is based on the two nations' internal infrastructures. 

"In the context of these two messengers, all standard banking messages including money order, guarantee, LC, etc. can be exchanged, and considering that the central banks of the two countries exchange and interact on the basis of their own national infrastructures, this MoU is unstoppable and unsanctionable,"

Karimi further said that "tonight we will conduct the first exchange of messages between an Iranian and a Russian bank," adding, "in the coming days and given the presence of the technical team of the Central Bank of Russia in Tehran, the links between all Iranian and Russian banks will be established through these messaging systems."

The representative of the Russian Central Bank at the signing ceremony of the MoU, for his part, said, "The biggest advantage of this MoU is that Western sanctions cannot affect it, and our financial organizations will be more widely connected with other financial institutions and organizations of Iran after signing this MoU."

"This MoU is related to financial messengers and fund transmitters, which will greatly help the two countries' business people," the Russian official further said.