Swift

Have commented on excess literature in the TLS at reference 1, this morning's topic, taken from that very same TLS, concerns the international banking system, the part of that system known as SWIFT.

In the beginning, the idea was to build a global payments system beyond the reach of government. With (the ever so pure) Citibank in the chair instead. European banks were not too keen on this idea and set up a co-operative, now known as SWIFT, based in Brussels. SWIFT soon became the hub for said global payments.

Although the US government is not supposed to spy on US citizens, by around the turn of the century, it already had a good grip on Internet traffic, given that so much of the infrastructure was accessible to their jurisdiction. It then thought that it would be good to get into the global payments scene too, and struck a data sharing deal with SWIFT - the quid-pro-quo being that the European governments concerned, also not supposed to go in for spying of this sort, got a slice of the action.

With the US so determined to stay in charge, they are the good guys after all, is it any wonder that the Chinese are pushing back a bit? They want to be in charge too. While the large economies in the global south, places like Brazil and India, want to stay out of it, and just want the two big powers to get along with each other. 

The piece closed on a positive note, with the Biden administration trying to do just that.

Then, as it happens, the Guardian ran a piece yesterday (reference 5) about how the Chinese government with all its rules about companies in China serving the state rather than the dollar, its bending companies to its will, to what it sees as the state interest, might be putting off potential investors from the West who have rather different rules at home.

I'm with Brazil and India on this one. I just want the two big powers to get along, to recognise that neither of them can be on top and to show each other the respect that they deserve. And, somehow, to accommodate Russia along the way. Racial affairs - say Uighurs in China and people of colour in the US - notwithstanding. 

PS: it is ironic that the author of reference 2 is part of the Blavatnik family. Mr Blavatnik being a Ukrainian who emigrated to the US in the late 1970's, completed his education there and went on to build a company (to be found at reference 3) which made a fortune out of buying up chunks of industry being sold up in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union. And who, for some reason, gives big to good causes in the UK.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/10/trolley-590.html.

Reference 2: SWIFTies: America commands the networks that power the global economy - Emily Jones, TLS - 2023. Jones being associate professor of public policy and director of global economic governance, Blavatnik school of government, University of Oxford.

Reference 3: https://www.accessindustries.com/. 

Reference 4: https://www.swift.com/. It might be a cuddly co-op, but its website is just like that of any other large corporation.

Reference 5: Red flags: Mixed messaging from Beijing leaves businesses questioning their investment - Amy Hawkins, Guardian - 2023.