Iran cut off from SWIFT banking system

Washington: Designated Iranian financial institutions have been cut off from the SWIFT messaging service, according to Sigal P. Mandelker, the Acting United States Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, who serves as Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.

The specifics on which financial institutions were cut off has not yet been announced.

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) provides a network used by more than 11,000 financial institutions in more than 200 countries that provides reliable, secure and efficient messaging services, according to its website. SWIFT says it is the backbone of global financial communication.

The Belgium-based SWIFT financial messaging service had said on Friday that it would be disconnecting some Iranian banks this weekend, according to SWIFT chief executive Gottfried Leibbrandt.

SWIFT said the decision to suspend the banks was “in the interest of the stability and integrity of the global financial system.”

According to a Reuters’ report, SWIFT had made no mention of US sanctions coming back into effect on some Iranian financial institutions on Monday, as part of US President Donald Trump’s effort to force Iran to curtail its nuclear, missile and regional activities.

SWIFT’s statement on November 5 said that suspending the Iranian banks’ access to the messaging system was a “regrettable” step but was “taken in the interest of the stability and integrity of the wider global financial system.”