ABOUT ROSSWIFT

Sergey Putyatinsky Chairperson of ROSSWIFT Steering Committee, Deputy Chairman of the Board, CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW

Under SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) By-Laws each country organizes SWIFT National Member Group and SWIFT National User Group uniting all SWIFT users. Russian National SWIFT Association (ROSSWIFT) was established in 1995 and is a non-governmental, nonprofit organization, representing the interests of both groups as well as acting on their behalf in the Russian Federation.

In December 1989 Vnesheconombank became first SWIFT member in the former Soviet Union. Starting from 1992 the number of Russian users began to grow more actively and by early 1998 their number exceeded two hundred. The crisis of 1998 reduced the number of new SWIFT members; however, starting from 1999 the number of Russian users is steadily increasing.

Currently, about 300 leading Russian banks and organizations are users of SWIFT. The geography of users in the Russian Federation is more than 68 cities in 9 different time zones. More than half of the Russian credit organizations are represented in SWIFT, these are major financial institutions carrying out more than 80% of the settlements. Russia is ranked second by number of SWIFT users after the United States. The supreme authority of the Association lies within the Annual General meeting of ROSSWIFT.

In the intervals of the Annual General meeting the Association is managed by the Steering Committee. The Steering Committee is elected at the General meeting from among its members in accordance with the approved principles of the Annual General meeting. Steering Committee is headed by the Chairperson. The current Chairperson of ROSSWIFT Steering Committee is Mr. Sergey Putyatinsky (Deputy Chairman of the Board, CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW).

Day-to-day management of the Association is exercised by the Executive Director – Mr. Roman Chernov. Russian National User Group is headed by Mr. Alexey Maslov (Deputy Director General, JCB International Eurasia LLC).

Members of the Steering Committee are: Bank of Russia, Alfa-Bank, Credit bank of Moscow, BFK, Expobank, Gazprombank,  VTB, Bank OTKRITIE Financial Corporation, Russian Agricultural Bank, Sberbank, Bank Sankt-Petersburg, National Settlement Depository,  Citibank, UniCredit Bank.

ROSSWIFT is a member of the European SWIFT Alliance, it unites about 30 countries in SWIFT, which accounts approximately for 40% of world traffic. Membership in this organization gives the Russian community an opportunity have an effect on policy decisions in SWIFT Board of Directors

ROSSWIFT is a member of Association of Russian Banks (ARB), Association "Russia", Chamber of Commerce.