Russia to Discuss Anti-Money Laundering Platform in BRICS

On Monday, Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina announced that her country will propose key initiatives to enhance cooperation within the economic block led by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS).

RELATED: 

Russian President Putin To Seek Re-Election in March

"First of all, we would like to promote the topic of mutual recognition of ratings. This is very important for mutual trade and investment," she said.

Noting that the idea of creating supranational rating agencies has been discussed both within BRICS and within the Eurasian Economic Union, she said the idea is promising but involves "a lot of complex issues," including who should be the founder, how to ensure the financing, and how to guarantee the independence and professionalism of the agency.

"In our view, mutual recognition of ratings will be faster and more practical," Nabiullina pointed out.

Another initiative that Russia plans to put forward in BRICS is to combat the money laundering of illicit funds. Russia has experience in creating an anti-money laundering platform called "Know Your Customer," which it is willing to share.

"We want to see what common platform solutions in this area can be developed at the level of BRICS. This would greatly simplify the cooperation of business of our countries," Nabiullina stated.

Russia also plans to build a settlement-depository infrastructure and create a common platform for training and exchange of experience for the BRICS countries, she said, noting the final agenda will be formed by the end of February.

The Central Bank governor also mentioned thar ther country is discussing with other BRICS countries the interaction of national systems for transmitting financial messages.

"Russia has a System for Transmitting Financial Messages (SPFS), which is an alternative to SWIFT. Similar infrastructure exists in some other countries. We are holding discussions on the interaction of such platforms, but here the interest and technical readiness of our partners are important," Nabiullina said, adding that 159 foreign participants from 20 countries have already joined the Russian system.

The SPFS was created by the Bank of Russia to mitigate the risks of potential disconnection of Russian banks from SWIFT -- an international interbank system for transmitting information and making payments, which connects more than 11,000 organizations in almost every country in the world.