Other EU member states are reluctant to make such a move because, while it would hit Russian banks hard, it would make it tough for European creditors to get their money back and Russia has in any case been building up an alternative payment system.

“Urgency and consensus is utmost priority at the moment,” said an EU diplomat, adding that at this stage it meant no move on SWIFT, because doing so would have such wide-ranging consequences, also in Europe. Another EU diplomat said: “I am not aware of an agreement (on SWIFT sanctions) at this point.” Data from the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) shows that European lenders hold the lion’s share of the nearly $30 billion in foreign banks’ exposure to Russia. Belgium-based SWIFT, a messaging network widely used by banks to send and receive money transfer orders or information, is overseen by central banks in the United States, Japan and Europe. NN: Losing SWIFT is not all it is cranked up to be. Reality is their are LOTS ways around what is a little more than a inconvenience. DEA typically shuts down drug cartels access to the traditional banking system, El Choppo built his billion dollar drug empire totally out of the system. What bought him down was a blond with big titties….. By the way the family still controls the majority of his wealth… The authorities were able to find very little of his money…. And Putin is a nuclear enhanced Kingpin….