The Distributed Ledger Technologies Centre at St Petersburg University develops analogue of the SWIFT system
On 12 March SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) disconnected Russian banks from the global financial messaging system. The presence of a regulatory party that is able to disconnect any organisation from interbank communication casts doubt on the reliability of this channel. The Distributed Ledger Technologies Centre has begun to work on creating a decentralised international system of interbank financial messages using blockchain technologies.
‘This solution will give all participants of the global banking system a new tool that will allow exchanging financial messages with a high degree of reliability. At the same time, banks will not be afraid of negative consequences, and states will be able to pursue a more independent policy’, said Dmitrii Shishmakov, Head of the Distributed Ledger Technologies Centre at St Petersburg University.
Each of the participating countries stores a part of the programming code and database, which makes them co-owners of the system. This protocol completely eliminates the risk of any bank being unlawfully disconnected from the exchange of financial messages. Distributed ledger technologies, in particular blockchain, guarantee the access to technology, security of transactions and transparency.
Despite the rapid development of technology, there is still no absolutely independent and transparent way of transferring money between countries and continents as of today.
Since 2015, the Bank of Russia has developed its own equivalent of financial transfer system. An alternative to SWIFT exists in China. Unfortunately, none of these systems solves the issue of the trust of all participants in it.
The new product of the Distributed Ledger Technologies Centre at St Petersburg University will make it possible in time to abandon the influence of SWIFT not only in the Russian Federation, but also in each participating country. This is an independent system that cannot extract direct financial benefits and create restrictions for an individual country or organisation. The University has all the necessary competencies and resources to implement this idea and is able to unite other market participants within the framework of a consortium. The Distributed Ledger Technologies Centre at St Petersburg University is ready to act as a technical operator of this new distributed system. This means that it does not have a centralised organisation that manages all processes.