MOSCOW, 3 February (BelTA) - The Eurasian Economic Commission considers it necessary for the Eurasian Economic Union to get ready for possible disconnection from the SWIFT global interbank payments system, official representative of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) Iya Malkina told the media when asked by BelTA about the West's threat to unplug one or several members of the EAEU from the SWIFT system, BelTA has learned.
"The EAEU needs to prepare for the situation when foreign correspondent banks, including the SWIFT system, will no longer be available. We need to reduce the time of settlement operations in national currencies and cut down transaction costs in the intra-union trade," Iya Malkina said.
"Disconnection from the SWIFT system has been probably the most popular threat in recent months. However, it is obvious that this move will affect the world economy too,” Iya Malkina noted. “Today this threat is mainly leveled against Russia, not the EAEU as a whole.”
She also noted that in the intra-union trade, EAEU member states mainly use national currencies and their share has been increasing: from 63% in 2013 to 74% according to the latest reported data. "The share of the U.S. dollar decreased from 30% in 2013 to 20%. This reduces our dependence on the global payment systems," Iya Malkina said.
"In accordance with the strategy 2025, our priority is to further increase the role of national currencies in mutual settlements. We have a high-level working group on de-dollarization of settlements in intra-union trade," the official representative of the EEC emphasized.
