TEHRAN - BRICS has put on the agenda the Central Bank of Iran (CBI)’s proposal to set up the group's own equivalent to the SWIFT payment system and create an organization to fight money laundering and terrorist financing that would be similar to intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

"The proposals of the Iranian central bank on the creation of a system for exchanging financial messages between members of the organization (similar to SWIFT), combating money laundering and financing of terrorism (similar to FATF) and international credit rating institutions for BRICS members were accepted by the organization on the agenda," the CBI deputy governor, Mohsen Karimi said.

The BRICS member states, as the largest emerging economies, need to establish a settlement mechanism to achieve a unified financial system, in which "the Iranian side can play a huge role," he added.

Iran has long sought the creation of an international payment system alternative to SWIFT, he noted.

Russian banks, which have been disconnected from SWIFT following the outbreak of the Ukraine war in February 2022, are also interested in an alternative system. Since then, the two countries have been making efforts to find alternatives or create them, the report added.

Back in January, Russian Central Bank Head Elvira Nabiullina said that Russia was discussing with other BRICS countries the interaction of national financial message transmission systems, and 159 foreign participants from 20 countries had already joined the Russian platform.

EF/