3 yıl önce

Rouble plunges nearly 30% after SWIFT ban on Russian banks

The Russian currency dropped nearly 26 percent to 105.27 per dollar, down from about 84 per dollar late on Friday.

Reuters

Russia’s Central Bank later sharply raised its key rate from 9.5 percent to 20 percent.

Russia's rouble has plunged nearly 30 percent against the dollar after world powers imposed fresh, harsher sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

The rouble was indicated to be down 27 percent at 114.33 per dollar in offshore trading on Monday, according to Bloomberg News.

The United States and European Union said they would exclude some Russian banks from the international bank payments system SWIFT.

They also personally targeted Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as well as banning all transactions with Russia's central bank.

Meanwhile, the G7 nations - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and the United States - warned they would "take further steps" to add to the sanctions already announced if Russia did not cease its operation.

Russia’s Central Bank later on Monday sharply raised its key rate from 9.5 percent to 20 percent in an attempt to shore up the plummeting rouble and prevent the run of banks.

Inflation likely to soar

Restrictions on the Russian central bank target its access to more than $600 billion in reserves the Kremlin has at its disposal, hindering its ability to support the rouble after it fell last week to its lowest level ever.

The decline of the rouble would likely send inflation soaring, hurting all Russians and not just the Russian elites who were the targets of earlier sanctions.

The resulting economic disruption, if Saturday’s measures are as harsh as described, could leave Putin facing political unrest at home.

Analysts predicted intensifying runs on banks by Russians, and falling government reserves as Russians scrambled to sell their targeted currency for safer assets.

The SWIFT financial messaging system daily moves countless billions of dollars around more than 11,000 banks and other financial institutions around the world.

Allies on both sides of the Atlantic also considered the SWIFT option in 2014, when Russia invaded and annexed Ukraine’s Crimea and backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine.

Russia declared then that kicking it out of SWIFT would be equivalent to a declaration of war and the allies shelved the idea. Russia since then has tried to develop its own financial transfer system, with limited success.

The disconnection from SWIFT announced on Saturday was partial, leaving Europe and the United States room to escalate penalties later. Officials said they had not fully settled on which banks would be cut off and that the aim was for targeted, functional restrictions.