The number of SWIFT payments processed daily reached nearly ** million messages by the end of 2022, although growth did slow down. Compared to December 2021, the average number of messages processed daily in December was roughly *** percent higher. No reason was provided for this slowdown, although some attribute it to the exclusion of Russia from the SWIFT system due to the war in Ukraine. This move - dubbed the "(political) weaponization of SWIFT" by some - is regarded as a motivator for de-dollarization, or the declining market share of the U.S. dollar as an international currency.

The euro and U.S. dollar made up more than ***** of 10 SWIFT payments worldwide in 2025, outperforming many other currencies. This is according to a monthly report meant to track the market share of China's yuan renminbi within the international bank transfer system SWIFT. Although China holds the largest forex reserves in the world, the yuan ranked as the ******-used currency in international payments. The figures concern customer-initiated and institutional payments and exclude trade. Discussions on the potential weakening role of the U.S. dollar especially touch world trade and forex. For example, the share of the USD in forex reserves declined visibly against the euro and Japanese yen in 2024. What sparked this de-dollarization trend, and will it continue? Trade sanctions and de-dollarization De-dollarization in 2024 is mentioned mostly alongside trade and the BRICS countries - an informal name given to Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The combined GDP of BRICS is about ** percent of the world's economy. After the start of the Ukraine war and Russia received economic sanctions, the BRICS slowly evolved into a trading bloc. The group increasingly wanted its own currency to settle payments within the trade bloc, to avoid using the U.S. dollar. In August 2024, BRICS will gather in South Africa to discuss the creation of such a new joint currency. Additionally, ** countries - including Argentina, Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Yemen - expressed interest in joining the BRICS group. CBDC, or projects into a digital payment settlement A factor of future uncertainty for the U.S. dollar is how central bank digital currencies (CBDC) develop in emerging countries. Several projects exist between individual countries that specifically target cross-border interbank payments. A cooperation between Thailand and Hong Kong, Inthanon-Lionrock, ranks as the most advanced of these projects. CBDC does not require the U.S. dollar to function. Tangible such as commodities or gold can back them. The value of transactions processed with CBDC is to grow by ******* percent between 2024 and 2030.

The number of messages that Russian banks receive or send through international payments system SWIFT is roughly ** times smaller than domestic transactions. Russia's payment system consists of several elements, of which SWIFT is but one part. The most important element - BRPS or the Bank of Russia Payment System - effectively handles domestic payment settlements in, for example, government payments. It consists of three components: The system for intraregional electronic payments (VER), the system for interregional electronic payments (MER), and the Banking Electronic Speedy Payment system (BESP system). SWIFT, on the other hand, refers to (cross-border) financial information exchange. The system does not send funds itself, but ensures the transmission of messages between financial institutions. This is similar to the cryptocurrency Ripple (XRP) - which provides a payment transaction framework rather than actively transferring payments itself. Russia does have its own domestic alternative to SWIFT - SPFS - but no concrete figures are provided for this system.

Cross-border payment system SWIFT is not used as often in Russia as domestic systems BRPS or NSD - although user numbers declined for all three systems. The differences are likely caused by the purpose of the different systems: SWIFT, for example, deals with (cross-border) financial information exchange. It makes money transfers between financial institutions possible by way of transmitting a message that announces an impending transactions. BRPS or the Bank of Russia Payment System, however, is a system that handles payment settlements - or the actual money transfer. Russia does have its own domestic messaging system like SWIFT - called SPFS - but no concrete figures are provided for this system.

Instant payment transactions in the UK, using Faster Payments (FP), grew by over *** million between 2021 and 2022. This may indicate that the use of real-time payments is growing in the United Kingdom. Note, however, that Faster Payments - a system rolled out in early 2008 - mostly serves bank transfers and is not necessarily used for consumer payments. FP, in that sense, is more akin to a clearing house system similar to SWIFT as opposed to instant payment schemes Pix in Brazil or CoDi in Mexico, which were deliberately created by domestic banks to help promote digital payments in those countries.

Estimates are that the value of international money transfers in the United States in 2022 was nearly ** times higher than in the United Kingdom. This is according to a model that tried to estimate the market size of international payments, such as remittances, across various countries worldwide. The source does not add much information. For instance, it does not clarify whether this includes all cross-border payments or whether it focuses on specific aspects of this industry - such as remittances by itself, or either the B2B or B2C segments. When compared to the 2021 KNOMAD figures - the "official" figures on remittances - regarding remittance outflow for the United States, the difference with the transaction value reported here was roughly ** billion U.S. dollars. The difference for outgoing remittances from the United Kingdom as reported by KNOMAD was also sizable. Both differences may be due to different market models and methodologies, although neither source goes into detail about this.

As of February 2022, 24 percent of people in the surveyed countries believed that the best way for the world to react to the Russia-Ukraine war was to ban trade with Russia. Approximately seven percent believed that Russia should be denied access to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), a single standardized communication system between banks which allows for quick transactions around the world. Further seven percent supported economic sanctions on the country.