Sanctions against Iran have moved one step ahead. The Belgium-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) in a statement on its website said it was ready to implement sanctions against Iranian financial institutions.
The move will have far reaching implications on Iranian financial institutions. In case SWIFT decides to expel Iranian Central Bank and other Iranian banks from its network, it would block Iran's entire banking system. Since it will deny them the main conduit for exchanging of crucial financial transaction information with banks in most countries.
According to Swift's 2010 annual report, 19 Iranian banks are members of the network, which processed nearly 2.3 million messages for Iranian financial institutions in 2010r.
SWIFT is run by the National Bank of Belgium and a consortium of Central banks of the other countries that form the Group of 10: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Britain and the United States. Iran has not yet reacted to the SWIFT’s announcement. The Financial analysts say if it happens it would have further cripple the economy in Iran.
