Overview

The System for Transfer of Financial Messages (Russian: Система передачи финансовых сообщений, romanized: Sistema peredachi finansovykh soobscheniy), abbreviated SPFS (Russian: СПФС), is a Russian equivalent of the SWIFT financial transfer system, developed by the Central Bank of Russia. The system has been in development since 2014, when the United States government threatened to disconnect the Russian Federation from the SWIFT system.

Since June 2024 the system is banned by the European Council for EU banks outside Russia, and in an alert issued in November 2024 the US OFAC warned that institutions that join the system after the issuance of this alert will be subject to aggressive targeting.

History

The first transaction on the SPFS network involving a non-bank enterprise was executed in December 2017. In March 2018, over 400 institutions (mostly banks) were part of the network.

The Russian Government was also in talks to expand SPFS to developing countries such as Turkey and Iran. As of 2018, owing to its limitations, the SPFS system was seen as a last resort, rather than as a full replacement for the SWIFT network. Since 2019 many agreements have been reached to link SPFS to other countries' payment systems in China, India, Iran, as well as the countries inside the EAEU who are planning to use SPFS directly.

At the end of 2020, there were 23 foreign banks connected to the SPFS from Armenia, Belarus, Germany, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Switzerland.

Geo-economic impact

As summarized by academic Tim Beal, SPFS is among the responses to sanctions imposed by the United States viewed by commentators as contributing to dedollarization.

The US authorities consider SPFS as a system created to help diminish the effects of sanctions imposed on Russian entities and individuals. In an alert issued on November 21, 2024, they made clear that institutions that join the system after the issuance of this alert will be subject to aggressive targeting, and foreign financial institutions should also be cautious of their exposure to other institutions participating in SPFS, which could be helping Russia evade US sanctions.