Tehran.

Photo: Taken from turismodeiran.es.

Iran's Central Bank Deputy Governor for International Affairs Mohsen Karimi said this week that Iran does not need to use the SWIFT messaging system for bank transfers.

According to the official, more than a hundred banks in Russia and other nations have been connected to Iran's financial telecommunication system, known as SEPAM.

Speaking to the Iranian news agency Tasnim, Karimi specified that all Russian banks, their branches in other countries with access to SPFS (Russian equivalent of SWIFT) and another 106 non-Russian banks in 13 countries have already been connected to SEPAM.

As the SPFS has been linked to SEPAM, any nation or entity that has access to the Russian network can now connect with Iranian banks and vice versa, said the official, who clarified that messages between the two systems are sent in line with the standards of the SWIFT.

In October 2022, the Russian trade representative in Iran, Rustam Zhiganshin, revealed plans for the launch of an interbank information system analogous to SWIFT, amid the strengthening of bilateral relations and as an alternative to the coercive measures imposed on both countries. .

(With information from Europa Press)