Why the West is reluctant to deny Russian banks access to SWIFT
It is definitely the last one.>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.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.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.