SWIFT in Russia

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) is a secure bank messaging technology provider from Belgium, whose services are used across the international financial system. In 2019, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that pushing Russia out of SWIFT and banning them from using it would, “in fact be a declaration of war.” Marco Werman talks to Brian O’Toole, an expert on sanctions and current nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council, about this ubiquitous bank messaging technology and how the US could use Russia’s access to it as leverage in the standoff over Ukraine.