In August 2024, the dollar accounted for almost half (49.1%) of payments handled by the global payment network SWIFT, with no other currency presenting solid competition to the dollar’s role in international payments.
According to recent research by Statista, the majority of payments on the SWIFT network are made in U.S. dollars, with the euro – the second most used currency – accounting for twice as few transactions.
The study was conducted ahead of the newly expanded BRICS group meeting, where heavily sanctioned Russia pushed for an alternative international payment platform to reduce the U.S. dollar’s dominance in global trade and international payments.
At present, or to be precise, as of August 2024, U.S. dollars remain the top choice for international payments. Over 49% of all transactions on SWIFT were facilitated with USD. Excluding payments within the Eurozone, the dollar’s share in SWIFT payments surges to 60%. Euro is ranked second, with 21.6%, the British pound accounts for 6.5% of the registered payments and 4.7% is attributed to the Chinese yuan.
Reportedly, BRICS countries, which jointly represent about 45% of the global population, aim to reduce the significance of the U.S. dollar role, creating an interlinked network of commercial banks across BRICS member states. The proposed system would facilitate token-based cross-border payments in local currencies, and reduce the need for dollar-based transactions along with the costs of settling international payments.
Russia, which initiated the proposed financial project, aims to find an alternative not only to the U.S. dollar but also to SWIFT as a payment system “of the West” itself. The Russian SPFS international payment system was created in 2014 as an analogue of SWIFT and is now available in over twenty-five countries, with over 550 institutions connected.
Another alternative to SWIFT is the Chinese CIPS (China International Payment System). This system links almost 1500 participating banks in 113 countries and regions of the world. In 2023, it facilitated more than 123,000 trillion yuan (equivalent to 17,200 trillion U.S. dollars) in transactions.
All those numbers fade in comparison with SWIFT at the moment. The most popular global banking messaging network has an annual transaction volume of around 150,000 trillion dollars. It unites over 11,000 financial institutions in more than 200 countries and regions.
To strengthen its role in international payments amid the growing competition, SWIFT is constantly innovating. Its most recent initiatives include AI-powered solutions to bolster fraud detection, developing a platform to connect multiple central bank digital currencies (CBDC), and a pilot project on corporate actions based on blockchain.
