Gazprombank asks SWIFT to reduce tariffs

Russian banks are trying to compensate for losses from the depreciation of the ruble due to foreign counterparties. According to Kommersant , Gazprombank, it is seeking to reduce tariffs for the services of the international financial information transfer system SWIFT for intra -Russian operations.

In the current conjuncture of the currency market, the depreciation of the ruble has ceased to be considered a significant argument, but SWIFT can go to a decrease in Russian tariffs for another reason - due to the threat of banks transition to alternative data transfer systems.

"The growth of the total traffic of Russian users over the past years significantly exceeds the growth of the total world traffic SWIFT," the Gazprombank said in a letter refers to the newspaper.

Despite the fact that the rate of the SWIFT (euro) exchange currency is growing, the further growth of traffic and the number of users "will contribute to a decrease in the tariff to transfer messages between institutions of the Russian Federation."

SWIFT is an international financial message transmission system. More than 10 thousand of the largest organizations in 210 countries of the world are connected to it. Every year, 1.8 billion messages are carried out through SWIFT, the volume of operations is 6 trillion dollars per day. In Russia, SWIFT users are 600 Russian banks and organizations that account for about 80% of the calculations. By the number of SWIFT users, Russia ranks second after the United States.

It is on local messages that the lion's share of the monthly traffic of Russian participants in the system accounts. For example, in Gazprombank - more than 92%, which provides about 85% of the bank’s costs for SWIFT services.

According to the publication, the issue will be discussed at the SWIFT business forum, which will be attended by representatives of the SWIFT headquarters, including the director of SWIFT for pricing Andre Boyko.