Why the West is reluctant to deny Russian banks access to SWIFT
It is definitely the last one.<p>>Last, using swift as a weapon against Russia could hurt long-term American interests. America holds sway over international finance thanks to the dollar’s dominance and its pre-eminent role in global settlement systems. Further politicising swift would give China an incentive to bolster cips, its rival to swift for cross-border payments in yuan. It would also help China court any country with uneasy relations with America looking for alternatives.<p>I would imagine there are additional politics in play with disabling SWIFT. I dont how many countries will need to agree before shutting down SWIFT access, if it is at the will of US it would be more like a semi-nuclear option.<p>Although I am already surprised by CIPS, one eighth of transaction volume of SWIFT is not "well behind". From many POV this already seems like a battle the west are clearly losing.