US and its allies to cut off selected Russian banks from SWIFT messaging system

Washington DC/Moscow: Seeking to cripple Russia's economy for invading Ukraine, the US and its key allies have decided to expel selected Russian banks from the SWIFT financial messaging system and impose restrictive measures on its central bank to limit Moscow's ability to access its overseas reserves.

The leaders of the US, the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, the UK and Canada on Saturday also decided to launch a joint task force to hunt down assets of sanctioned Russian companies and oligarchs.

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) is the world's main banking messaging service which links around 11,000 banks and institutions in more than 200 countries, including India.

Based in Belgium, the system is considered central to the smooth functioning of global finances and Russia's exclusion from it would hit the country hard.

"We stand with the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian people in their heroic efforts to resist Russia's invasion. Russia's war represents an assault on fundamental international rules and norms that have prevailed since the Second World War, which we are committed to defending, the leaders said in a joint statement released by the White House.

"We will hold Russia to account and collectively ensure that this war is a strategic failure for (President Vladimir) Putin," the allies said in the statement.

In Tokyo, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced that Japan will join efforts by the US and the European Union in blocking access by some Russian banks to the international payment system SWIFT.

On top of the sanctions already announced on Russia, Japan will freeze assets held by Russian President Putin and other Russian government officials, Kishida said.

Removing banks from SWIFT is deemed to be a severe curb because almost all banks use the system. Russia is heavily reliant on the SWIFT system for its key oil and gas exports.

The joint sanctions are the harshest measures imposed to date on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.