SWIFT end to the US dollar?

The US dominance of international financial transfers known as SWIFT has been affected by its weaponization of its dollar, including sanctions against nations such as Russia.

This has been going on for at least a decade, so Russia and other nations have taken steps.

Notice the following:

Can BRICS Pay become a challenger to SWIFT?

October 30, 2024

Countries in today’s globalized economy are increasingly interdependent, relying on international payment networks to facilitate cross-border transactions. SWIFT, headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, is the most widely used payment network, processing transactions predominantly in US dollars.

Although it operates from Europe, SWIFT is influenced by the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and other G-10 financial authorities, which allows the US considerable sway over the system. This influence has been described as the “weaponization” of SWIFT, as control over global payments can have strategic consequences. …

Russia has been working to insulate itself from SWIFT dependency since it annexed Crimea in 2014. This initiative led to the development of the System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS), an alternative platform created by Russia’s central bank. Currently, SPFS connects 557 banks and companies, including 159 foreign entities, with 160 banks worldwide participating in the system.

China has similarly developed its own alternative with the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS), launched in 2015. By 2021, CIPS had processed a significant 80 trillion yuan (approximately $12.8 trillion), connecting 1,280 financial institutions across 103 countries. Among these are 30 Japanese banks, 23 Russian banks, and 31 African banks, marking its wide international reach.

The origins of BRICS Pay

Events like the US’s recent seizure of Afghan reserve funds and frozen Russian assets have highlighted the vulnerability of dollar-denominated reserves, undermining trust in dollar debt as an international savings tool. This experience has prompted many nations to seek alternative trade settlement and currency security systems.

In response to this shifting landscape, the announcement of BRICS Pay from Kazan, Russia, marks a significant milestone in the ongoing efforts to diversify global payment networks beyond the established US dollar-dominated systems.

The BRICS Plus Summit of heads of state was held in Kazan, Russia, from October 22 to 24, 2024. The Kazan summit marked the first post-expansion gathering for BRICS, highlighting initiatives like the introduction of “BRICS Pay,” which aimed to fortify economic and trade ties within the group.

The introduction of BRICS Pay aims to challenge SWIFT’s global monopoly and reduce dollar dominance, positioning it as a significant step towards financial autonomy for BRICS nations.

However, BRICS Pay cannot yet replace SWIFT entirely unless BRICS members agree on a unified or common currency—a challenging task given the economic disparities among member countries. https://www.tbsnews.net/thoughts/can-brics-pay-become-challenger-swift-980256

Notice that Europe theoretically controls SWIFT. That also means that Europe could interfere with the US’ own ability to use it.

That said, because of the use of financial sanctions by the US, some are concerned about their ramifications on its economy. Notice the following report:

The Biggest Story that’s NOT Being Told Will WREAK HAVOC on the US Economy

On February 26^th, 2022, the U.S., EU, UK and Canada, agreed to ban a select group of Russian banks from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, aka… SWIFT.

The move was originally intended to cripple Russia’s financial system in an effort to pressure Putin into ending his military operations in Ukraine. Seven Russian banks were denied access to SWIFT, initially causing somewhat of a negative impact on the Russian economy, but this move ultimately backfired on the U.S and its allies last week when, during the BRICS conference, the bloc introduced BRICS Pay.

While there are some news outlets giving this story a bit of attention, it’s not nearly getting the exposure it deserves, as this is one of the biggest economic developments of our time. In fact, 159 out of 195 countries will have the ability to bypass the SWIFT system entirely using BRICS Pay Blockchain based payment platform. Let that sink in for a moment…more than 3/4 of the countries in the world will be able to trade in currencies outside of the U.S. Dollar.

In addition to the BRICS Pay announcement, Vladimir Putin confirmed that discussions of creating a gold-back currency, known as the “Unit”, are accelerating in an effort to replace the U.S. Dollar as the Global Reserve Currency. While the dollar still remains king of all currencies, the Federal Reserve seems to be doing nothing to neutralize the threat.

The big question is, what kind of impact will this all have on the cost of imports, such as Crude Oil, Grain, Rice and Corn, if we are not able to buy those commodities in US Dollars? The bottom line is, the US Government shot themselves in the foot, and now, we may have to deal with a level of inflation that could be shocking. https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2024-10-28/biggest-story-thats-not-being-told-will-wreak-havoc-us-economy

Yes, these moves can wreak havoc on the economy of the US. Notice something I posted about that back in 2019:

Can this hurt the USA?

Yes. By having alternatives to US dollar-dominated financial systems, it provides openings for others to not use the US dollar and hence decrease wealth that the US gets from its dominance of international finance.

Are these moves away from SWIFT simply Russian and Chinese propaganda?

No.

Notice something from the Wall Street Journal:

Brussels and European Union states seem ready to stage a battle with Washington over an obscure but important financial-service network—against Europe’s own interests.

The looming brouhaha concerns Swift …

Swift is particularly prone to U.S. pressure because the American financial system looms so large in the world. Swift’s board includes representatives of European and American banks, and many messages across its network travel to or from the U.S. Some Europeans believe Washington wields too much influence over a network they think should operate on a multilateral consensus like a financial EU. 10/17/18 https://www.wsj.com/articles/europes-not-so-swift-diplomacy-1539730896

Here is some information about SWIFT:

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) provides a network that enables financial institutions worldwide to send and receive information about financial transactions in a secure, standardized and reliable environment. SWIFT also sells software and services to financial institutions, much of it for use on the SWIFTNet network, and ISO 9362. Business Identifier Codes (BICs, previously Bank Identifier Codes) are popularly known as “SWIFT codes”.

The majority of international interbank messages use the SWIFT network. As of 2015, SWIFT linked more than 11,000 financial institutions in more than 200 countries and territories, who were exchanging an average of over 15 million messages per day (compared to an average of 2.4 million daily messages in 1995). (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. Wikipedia, retrieved 04/01/19)

Basically, most international cross-border payments seem to use SWIFT.

Because of US sanctions and threats of sanctions, and its pressure on SWIFT, many nations are looking to develop ways to bypass it. (Thiel B. ‘SWIFT end’ as Russian banks move towards Chinese financial system? Can this hurt the USA? COGwriter, April 1, 2019)

In that post, I also had the following from 2018:

US Sanctions and Tariffs leading to New World Order?

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said new US sanctions would be a declaration of economic war. Iran, North Korea, China, Europe, and Turkey are also upset about USA sanctions and tariffs. A Turk asserted “Somebody must find a solution and stop the USA.” The BRICS nations see US sanctions and tariffs as helpful to their objectives to trade without the USA. Are “unintended consequences” of USA policies threatening the current Anglo-American world order and leading to a New World Order? What has ‘Lord’ Jacob Rothschild and Russian President Vladimir Putin stated? Does Bible prophecy show that a confederation of Turks, Arabs, and Europeans pose a real threat to the USA and UK? Is the final time of the Gentiles coming? Will it be worse than people imagine? Dr. Thiel addresses these issues and more. Here is a link to our video: US Sanctions and Tariffs leading to New World Order?

Since those came out, the BRICS group has expanded, the US put in more sanctions, and we are seeing more steps being worked on by more and more of the world to bypass the US dollar and to bypass the SWIFT system.

When she was US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton used to brag about how the US could use its so-called ‘soft-power,’ which mainly means imposing Washington’s will through economic blackmail and other pressures.

While that may seem successful in the short-run, in the long run it pushes nations away from the US.

Dethroning the US dollar will cause massive economic problems for the USA. Much more than almost anyone believes. The standard of living in the USA has been raised/subsidized for decades because of the status of the US dollar. That status is weakening. This will ultimately severely hurt the USA.

What will happen to the economy of the USA will be much worse than what happened to the UK when the pound sterling lost its status as the world’s primary reserve currency.

Another thing that has been happening is that Russia may have yet another way around SWIFT–making the Ruble a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). Notice something from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace:

A central bank digital currency could provide Russia with an alternative to the SWIFT international payment system from which it has been cut off, …

In recent years, central banks in several major countries, including Russia and the United States, have been exploring the creation of digital assets, commonly known as central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

Russian policy discussions about the creation of a digital ruble center on its potential utility for facilitating international trade and mitigating the impact of sanctions. The advantages for Russia of CBDCs, including enhanced cross-border payment capabilities and reduced transaction costs, are fairly straightforward. They could provide Russia with alternatives to traditional payment systems like SWIFT that it lost access to as a result of Western economic sanctions introduced in the wake of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.

The digital ruble project initiated by the Russian central bank in 2020 has progressed rapidly, with real-world testing involving several commercial banks and clients now under way. Positioned as a retail CBDC, the digital ruble is intended to integrate seamlessly into everyday transactions. …

The potential success of Russia and China in this field does not pose an immediate threat to either the dominance of the U.S. dollar or the viability of the existing Western sanctions regime, but it does pave the way for gradual yet significant changes to the global financial system as we know it. 10/17/24 https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2024/10/russia-digital-ruble-development?lang=en&center=russia-eurasia

Yes, steps being taken by Russia, China, and others related to bypassing the US dollar and moving towards CBDCs are setting the stage to end the need for SWIFT–as well as the end of US dollar dominance.

It should be noted that one of the reasons that the euro came about was to bypass the US dollar in intra-European trade, and to a major degree, that was successful. The Europeans want to dominate international finances, the Bible points to them temporarily succeeding in that (cf. Revelation chapters 17 & 18), and the US being gone (cf. Daniel 11:39).

We are getting closer to the great tribulation (Matthew 24:21; see also When Will the Great Tribulation Begin?) and final time of the Gentiles (Luke 21:24) that Jesus spoke of when the European Beast power will rise up.

As far as financial matters being a factor, notice something the late Pastor General of the old Worldwide Church of God, Herbert W. Armstrong, said in a sermon on July 7, 1984:

And I can see now, the event that is going to trigger the formation of the reunification in Europe; the resurrection of the medieval Holy Roman Empire that we’ve been looking forward to that is prophesied to come…

But I believe that some event is going to happen suddenly just like out a blue sky that is going to shock the whole world and is going to cause the nations in Europe to realize they must unite! … Well now I think I can see what may be the very event that is going to trigger…that is the economic situation in the world…

The whole banking structure in the United States is a network all jointed together. But not only that, one nation has to deal with other nations and imports and exports. And so they have to have a means of transforming money from one nation to another. And so the banking structure is international and interwoven…

Now when the financial structure breaks down, all civilization is going to break down…

So, an economic or banking crisis is what Herbert W. Armstrong concluded would drive Europe to unite. That, along with trying to cooperate with some of the plans of the BRICS nations, could cause Europe to put the final nail in the use of SWIFT for the US dollar.

The fact is that the Gentile nations are taking steps that the Anglo-American nations will one day regret.

Related to BRICS and the USA dollar, we put together the following video:

14:31

BRICS Push Aside USA Dollar

The BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) have as one of their founding goals, to eliminate the need to use USA dollars in cross-border trade. Six additional nations have been invited to join BRICS in 2024, and India reports that six more are also being looked at. The BRICS nations have already begun to drop the USA dollar for some cross-border trading with Russia and China, indicating that they had almost done so completely in late 2023. What will happen to the economy and value of the USA dollar if more and more nations stop using it as a primary reserve and trading currency? What about hyperinflation? Does the Bible prophesy destruction for a highly indebted nation in the end time? Is the USA the most indebted nation of all time? What about the intent and use of the Euro? Will Europe and Asia cooperate to eliminate the USA and its British-descended allies?