Lebanese publication An Nahar writes in this regard that the news went virtually unnoticed, as the American media did not pay attention to it, despite its exclusivity. “This can be compared to the declaration of independence from the American payment system, which we usually call SWIFT. For the first time in the last 80 years, the world’s largest economies are conducting interregional transactions without the participation of American banks,” the publication writes.
Former Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Paulo Nogueira Batista Jr. called what happened nothing less than “the financial equivalent of the division of the nucleus”, thus emphasizing the exceptional significance of the event for the whole world.
As An Nahar notes, Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa can now use digital currencies for trade, bypassing the U.S. dollar and the SWIFT system. They simply turn to blockchain technology to conduct transactions that remain invisible to the U.S. financial system and do not require the payment of fees.
This is no small achievement, the publication believes. The dollar has been America’s most powerful weapon for the past five decades, and the SWIFT system has been the arena where Washington has won its biggest victories. But the period when America interfered in the global economy to serve its political interests seems to be over, says An Nahar.
