Report: EU Considers SWIFT Ban for Belarus Banks

Days after several Russian banks were reportedly barred from SWIFT, the international messaging system used to process payments, the European Union is considering adding banks in Belarus to the forbidden list, Reuters reported Thursday (March 3).

“On the SWIFT side, we’re also looking now at the preparation of the equivalents for the Belarus financial sector, but knowing that SWIFT is not as strategically important in the Belarus economy as it is in the Russian side,” an EU official told the news organization.

The Republic of Belarus — a landlocked country in Eastern Europe — is bordered by Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania.

Earlier this week, the EU was considering trimming seven Russian banks from SWIFT, including VTB, the country’s second-largest lender and a financial services provider with branches in Russia, former Soviet states, Europe, Asia, Africa and the United States.

Read more: EU Mulls Blocking Russian Banks From SWIFT, but Big Name FIs Are Missing

VTB, Bank Otkritie, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, Rossiya Bank and Sovcombank were all included on the sanctions list. However, Sberbank, Russia’s biggest bank, and Gazprombank, its third-largest lender, were not included on the list.

The EU was reluctant to prohibit Russian banks from the SWIFT network given its dependence on Russian oil and gas. If SWIFT were to ban all the Russian banks, they would be reduced to antiquated payment methods such as faxing, the report said.

On Thursday, cryptocurrency exchange Binance also said it won’t allow cardholders from several sanctioned Russian banks to use them on its platform.

Related: Binance Won’t Take Sanctioned Russian Banks’ Cards on Crypto Platform

Binance is among a small group of cryptocurrency exchanges taking a stance against Russian banks and individuals involved in the Ukrainian invasion. Several of the world’s larger crypto exchanges are remaining operational in Russia and continuing with unrestricted access.