By Tim Korso

September 18, 2019 "Information Clearing House" -  The international SWIFT network banned Iranian banks from its system soon after the US imposed sanctions against the country in November 2018. The ban was preceded by Washington's threats to slap sanctions on the financial network too if it were to continue working with the Islamic Republic's financial institutions.

Iranian Central Bank (CBI) head Abdolnaser Hemmati said in a statement on 18 September that the country is planning to evade American economic sanctions by switching entirely away from the dollar to national currencies in mutual trade and by bypassing SWIFT. Such steps have been discussed with Turkey and Russia.

"Accordingly, we are moving toward using alternative payment systems and conducting our business through national currencies", Hemmati said.

Separately, the CBI chief said that his country has issued a proposal to Russia to use alternative payment systems in trade with the entire Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), of which Iran became a temporary member in 2018. He noted that such measures would effectively render SWIFT useless for the country.

SWIFT, an international messaging network for communications between banks, announced its ban on Iranian financial institutions soon after the US targeted them with sanctions in November 2018. The network said that this was done in order to preserve the "global stability of the system" and that the decision was preceded by Washington threatening to impose sanctions on SWIFT itself if it would not cut ties with Iran.