The former head of Phosagro sees a replacement for SWIFT in China’s CIPS payment system

MOSCOW, June 15 (Reuters) – Russian authorities should focus on the issue of a direct connection to China’s Cross-border Interbank Payment System (CIPS), which could become a full-fledged replacement for the global SWIFT payment system, former head of Phosagro Andrey Guryev said. currently president of the Russian Association of Fertilizer Producers (RAPU).

Guriev, subject to personal Western sanctions, noted that the main problem for Russian exporters, including settlements under the “grain deal”, under which Rosselkhozbank cannot be reconnected with SWIFT, is cross-border payments.

“It has been widely discussed for a long time – after all, it is a transition from SWIFT to other alternatives such as CIPS – this is a Chinese alternative that has already been created,” Guryev said, speaking at a forum in St. St. Petersburg.

The head of VTB Andrei Kostin previously spoke of the need to directly link Russian banks with CIPS, as well as resume cooperation with key Chinese state financial institutions.

“If we look at the BRICS countries… 70% of trade is still in yuan, and this system is helping to grow it. In my opinion, we need to move forward and develop it as soon as possible, both with our Chinese colleagues and with Latin American countries, members of the BRICS, so that we can make these payments, because in reality this is probably the key problem … There is insurance, there is logistics, everything it has become more expensive, but I would like to put a lot of emphasis on this (payments), ”said Guryev.

Board member of VTB Bank, Vitaly Sergeychuk, confirmed that the business is looking to pay in local currencies, mainly in rubles and yuan.

“We see that our key consumers – and these are Turkey, Egypt, Iran, which account for about 50% of grain exports – are ready to use the ruble as a means of payment, they are ready to switch to the yuan as a means of payment, and this allows us to be more optimistic about into the future,” he said.

In an interview with Reuters, the head of VTB Andrey Kostin said that exporters are already actively switching to the national currency in settlements not only with the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union, but also in trade with China, India and third countries. (Olga Popova, text by Elena Fabrichnaya. Edited by Dmitry Antonov)