ECB's Nowotny opposes ejecting Russia from SWIFT system: report

European Central Bank policymaker Ewald Nowotny has warned against kicking Russian banks out of the SWIFT payments transfer system as part of tighter sanctions on Moscow, the Austria Press Agency quoted him as saying on Thursday. Such a move "we would see as very problematic because it could perhaps undermine confidence in this system", the governor of Austria's central bank told reporters in Brussels after meeting European Commissioner Pierre Moscovici. Russia has drafted a law to regulate a local equivalent to SWIFT in response to concerns that the Belgian-based system, the world's biggest for electronic payments, could be a focus of Western sanctions against Moscow over the Ukraine crisis. APA quoted Nowotny as saying Austria would not be immediately affected should Russian banks be excluded from SWIFT, but that Russia could retaliate, "and this could of course affect all companies that do business in Russia".

via Business News http://ift.tt/1zifBJr