"All Russian banks already subjected to sanctions will be disconnected from SWIFT, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Saturday. The EU, the UK, Canada and the US agreed to implement the measure over Russia's "special operation" to "de-militarise and de-nazify" Ukraine.

"The removal of Russian banks from SWIFT means that while transactions can continue to take place the means of communicating have been rendered slower," says Suranjali Tandon, assistant professor at a Delhi-based National Institute of Public Finance and Policy. "In order to predict the impact, it is important to assess the number of banks that currently use SWIFT and the size of transactions undertaken through these."

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) is a Belgium-based independent organisation that serves as an internal messaging system between over 11,000 banks and financial institutions in over 200 countries. Several major Russian banks, including Sberbank and VTB, could be disconnected from the system in the coming days. The Western leaders have also committed "to imposing restrictive measures that will prevent the Russian Central Bank from deploying its international reserves in ways that undermine the impact of our sanctions."