Russia Financial News

While domestic digital payment usage surged during the pandemic, the EIU expects this to slow over the next five years, largely owing to strong base effects. However, customers are increasingly demanding a similar revolution in cross-border payments, which are still mostly facilitated by the "old-fashioned" and "cumbersome" correspondent banking network. At the centre of this is Swift, which the paper notes has "encountered criticism for its relative inflexibility and lack of transparency" and seen a decline in the number of correspondent banking relationships over the last decade. More recently, Russian has been kicked off the Swift network, a move which could see the country and others such as China and India double down on their nascent Swift alternatives. Nevertheless, the paper says "setting up and scaling a full-fledged alternative bank-messaging system would be expensive and time consuming. It would also have limited real-world impact, given the prevalence of dollar-denominated cross-border flows. Swift will remain the dominant network, as long as countries and lenders come together to improve the Belgian network." Separately, cross-border payments will be disrupted by government-backed efforts to link systems. In Asia, moves are already underway to do this, allowing travellers across the region to purchase goods and services by scanning QR codes. As well as challenging Swift, disrupting cross-border payments will mean adopting emerging technologies, including blockchain, APIs and tokenisation, says the EIU.

The United States (US) president said Thursday that his country's economy is "on track", despite GDP figures showing it had shrunk for the second time in a row -- stoking fears of a recession.

Have you been out to your favourite restaurant, only to discover the food wasn’t quite as good or the portions were much smaller? Or even eating at home has become more expensive as the supermarket shop adds up?

Tetiana was expecting it to be the sound of champagne bottles popping that got her up for her wedding in the morning, but she was instead dragged out of bed by a Russian missile falling near her home in central Ukraine.

Russian forces have launched massive missile strikes on Ukraine's Kyiv and Chernihiv regions, areas that haven't been targeted in weeks. 

In this week’s newsletter, read about how game developer Square Enix plans to launch Final Fantasy VII digital collectibles. Check out the new Open Metaverse Alliance for Web3 and how NFT sales will fund artwork restoration efforts in Ukraine.

The French president vilified Russia as a "colonial imperial power" during a visit to Benin, which France ruled for more than 150 years. 

The headquarters that will coordinate grain exports from Ukraine was unveiled in Turkey on Wednesday, following a landmark agreement to unlock shipments last week. 

In a report released on 26 July, the International Monetary Fund claimed that the Bitcoin [BTC] bear market has no bearing on the stability of the world’s financial system.

The European Union (EU) has found evidence that phones used by some of its top staff were hacked by Israeli spyware, the bloc's top justice official said in a letter seen by Reuters.

With countries across the world on the brink of famine, shipping companies aren't rushing to export millions of tons of trapped grain out of Ukraine, despite a breakthrough deal to provide safe corridors through the Black Sea.

Gas deliveries via Nord Stream fell on Wednesday to 20% of the pipeline's capacity, amplifying worries about winter shortages across Europe, according to the German operator Gascade. 

Western European powers have pressed Iran to sign a revived 2015 nuclear deal, warning that what's on the table now is “the best possible” arrangement. 

Western governments are bracing for a protracted economic confrontation with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, as Moscow fights back against international sanctions by disrupting energy and food supplies.

Michael R Strain is director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute

Ukrainian troops have struck a strategic bridge essential for Moscow to supply its forces occupying the country's south, as Russia pounded several areas in Ukraine with rocket and artillery strikes.

A long-time adviser to Viktor Orbán has resigned over a speech that the Hungarian prime minister gave in which he criticised what he labelled as "race mixing", sparking international outcry.

A televised debate between the candidates to become Britain's next prime minister had to be abandoned on Tuesday after the host fainted on air.

Pope Francis prayed for healing from what he called the "terrible effects of colonisation" as he led a pilgrimage to Lac Sainte Anne on Tuesday in Canada.

Croatia has opened a long-awaited bridge connecting two parts of the country's Adriatic Sea coastline while bypassing a small sliver of Bosnia's territory.

Social media users, as well as one of Russia's largest TV channels, Rossiya 1, shared misleading claims on Sunday that the University of Oxford has started to revoke the degrees of 10,000 students linked to the Kremlin.