Iran’s SEPAM to replace SWIFT in trade transactions: ACU chief
The secretary general of the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) said Iran’s financial messaging system, SEPAM, will replace international payment system, SWIFT, in trade exchanges between the union’s members.
Farhad Morsali said that Iran’s SEPAM has been accepted by ACU members as an internal financial messaging system, according to a report by Fars news agency.
He said it will take six months to prepare the union’s own messaging system and, in the meantime, members should replace SWIFT with SEPAM, for which Iran will charge a fee.
Iran unveiled SEPAM in October 2013 as an alternative to SWIFT, a Belgium-based financial messaging system that is being gradually abandoned by countries because of its sheer reliance on transactions that are based on the U.S. dollar.
Last month, central bank chiefs of ACU member states decided at a summit in Tehran to create an internal financial messaging system to replace SWIFT in banking transactions.
The decision was in line with efforts made by ACU members to reduce the domination of the U.S. dollar in global trade.
Mohsen Karimi, deputy governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) for international affairs, said in February that all Russian banks and 106 banks in 13 other countries have been connected to SEPAM.