Transfer of financial messages within Russia is provided by the Financial Message Transfer System (SPFS). This was reported by the press service of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.
“The transmission of financial messages within the country under any scenario is provided by the Financial Message Transmission System (SPFS) of the Bank of Russia,” the regulator said in a statement on measures to maintain financial stability.
About SPFS
The Bank of Russia financial messaging system, an analogue of the SWIFT international settlement system, is an alternative channel for transmitting electronic messages on financial transactions and guarantees the uninterrupted transmission of financial messages both within the country and abroad.
The Bank of Russia launched SPFS in test mode in 2014. The system can transmit data in SWIFT format, but does not depend on its channels. In 2017, SPFS started working in full, transmitting messages about transactions in any currency. Initially, it was intended only for domestic Russian users, but by April 2021, more than 20 Belarusian banks, the Armenian Arshidbank and the Kyrgyz Bank of Asia were connected to it. Subsidiaries of large Russian banks in Germany and Switzerland also have access to it. Negotiations are underway on SPFS settlements with China. To date, 399 users are participating in the system. In 2020, the monthly traffic of SPFS amounted to 2 million messages, the share of the system in the domestic exchange of financial data was 20.6%, ahead of SWIFT.
In December 2021, Denis Baryshkov, Head of the Department for Development and Regulation of the National Payment System of the Bank of Russia, said that among the users connected to the financial messaging system were 38 foreign participants from nine countries. Then he said that all Belarusian banks are connected to the Russian financial messaging system.