TEHRAN - An Iranian official with the Iranian Economy Ministry has confirmed that the BRICS group of emerging economies set up an anti-money laundering council nearly three months ago.

Hadi Khani, head of the financial information center of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance, told IRNA's correspondent on Sunday that the council is composed of chairpersons of departments for money laundering or chiefs of financial information centers of the member states.

The Council for Combating Money Laundering has convened three times up to now, he said, noting that the members discussed its secretariat as well as interaction and cooperation to reach objectives regarding the campaign against money laundering and terrorism financing.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is an active member of the council as a result of efforts made by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance, and the Anti-Money Laundering High Council, he said.

The council is operational now and its next meeting is scheduled to be held in Russia in April, Khani said, underlining that the member states try to turn the council into a mechanism that will actively secure the interests of the members.

Earlier this month, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Mohsen Karimi announced that BRICS has put on the agenda the 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," 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/