Ask HN: Given SPFS, would Russia care about SWIFT?

6 points by mellifluousbox ↗ HN
To understand the importance of SWIFT with regards to the Ukrainian-Russian war, I’m reading up on the system. In course of that I learned that Russia built SPFS [1], an alternative and compatible system, in 2014.

Could anyone comment on why cutting Russia(n banks) from SWIFT would matter, given they have SPFS anyway?

It is clear SPFS is far from being a completely compatible SWIFT alternative. But it still seems like Russia laid a reasonable groundwork for a “post-SWIFT era” and would not really care about what the media seems to consider the strongest possible sanction against it.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPFS

4 comments

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Because it's not about the protocol. It's about the countries implementing it.

+ Swift is cheap vs. Other options and the currency is stable.

SPFS is implemented in one german bank, so Merkel and Putin still can trade gas behind Europe back even if they block swift
Interesting. Got more details on this? Which bank?