Russia and China's move to abandon dollar receives blowback from SWIFT

Although SWIFT is considered to be a European based conduit for global financial transactions between currencies, nearly everyone in the industry knows that it is a U.S. dominated system tied to America's control over the reserve currency. And as the U.S. continues to attack Russia and her allies with financial war, including sanctions restricting their access to the SWIFT system, on Oct. 6 the global center that facilitates currency exchanges for dollars responded to these attacks by publicly announcing they are not in favor of being used to accommodate disruptions to the free flow of currencies between any nation, and that they are not to blame for America's use of SWIFT to wage economic warfare against another country.

SWIFT is the primary global system that countries use to exchange their own currencies for U.S. dollars in order to purchase oil and other commodities on the global market. Created in 1973 in the exact year America forged the petro-dollar agreement with Saudi Arabia to force all oil transactions to be denominated in dollars, this financial system has assured the U.S. control over the global reserve currency for more than 40 years.


And with Russia and China already in talks to create an alternative SWIFT system it appears that the writing is on the wall for the European based institution and they do not wish to go down without a fight.

SWIFT and its stakeholders have received calls to disconnect institutions and entire countries from its network – most recently Israel and Russia.
SWIFT is a neutral global cooperative company set up under Belgian law. It was established by and for its members to create a shared worldwide messaging service and a common language for international transactions. SWIFT provides services to over 10,500 financial institutions and corporations in over 200 jurisdictions around the world. SWIFT is a critical service provider to the financial industry and plays a pivotal role in supporting international commerce and trade.
SWIFT regrets the pressure, as well as the surrounding media speculation, both of which risk undermining the systemic character of the services that SWIFT provides its customers around the world. As a utility with a systemic global character, it has no authority to make sanctions decisions. - SWIFT

Back on September 18, the EU Parliament voted to restrict Russia's access to SWIFT in light of new U.S. sanctions on Russian banks and energy companies. This move was to show a lock-step alliance with American national policy to wage economic and financial war with Russia over their occupations in Ukraine and the Crimea. Ironically however, this move occurred eight days after Russia and China began their plans to create an alternative to SWIFT, making the EU's vote almost a reactionary measure that validates the true weakness in the Western coalition.

SWIFT is the centerpiece in the ongoing battle for supremacy over the current and perhaps future reserve currency, and it appears today that the international conduit for financial settlements is not happy with being caught in the middle of a geo-political proxy war. And with the entire global financial system reliant upon the up to the minute free flow of currencies between one country and the next, using SWIFT as a pawn in any form of economic war creates a scenario where the world may soon look for a new alternative to protect their own financial interests.

http://www.examiner.com/article/russia-and-china-s-move-to-abandon-dollar-receives-blowback-from-swift