Russia looks to Chinese financial plumbing to keep money flowing

NATIONALIST BLOGGERSCIPSSWIFTCIPSSWIFTSWIFT in China have a new fascination: global payment systems. Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine, followed by Western sanctions on Russia, have prompted internet pundits to extol the virtues of the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (), the rails on which Chinese banks transfer and clear yuan-denominated payments around the world. Some have also taken to bashing , the Belgium-based financial messaging system that has started excluding Russian banks from international payments. and are far from being household names in China. But the sweeping sanctions against Russia—on the use of by some of its banks and on its central bank—have shone a spotlight on China’s homegrown financial networks, and the extent to which it can use them to help Russia. Three primary Chinese financial channels are in place to assist—two legitimate, one not. None is a remotely adequate substitute for the links to the Western financial system that Russia has lost.