Commentary SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) is the global financial system that allows immediate and secure transfers of money across borders. It’s the web that verifies all financial transactions. It links 11,000 banks and institutions in more than 200 countries, with 40 million messages a day. Using SWIFT ensures that transactions happen in seconds in a secure way. Around 1 percent of those messages involve Russian payments, according to the BBC. As part of the West’s sanctions against Russia, some of its banks have been banned from the SWIFT system. Additionally, the United States and the European Union have announced restrictions on the Russian central bank that block access to more than $600 billion in reserves. The Bank of Russia reports that only 22 percent of its international reserves are U.S. dollars, while gold accounts for 23 percent. What does this mean? On the one hand, the move …