What are SWIFT sanctions which are being imposed on Russia?

You might have heard about sanctions in the news when the U.S. government bans Russian goods or services because of the Ukraine war. But what do sanctions mean? In simple terms, they’re economic penalties designed to make the payments world safe or to weaken a country, organization, or individual by blocking financial transactions. For example, if a country is sanctioned, banks and businesses worldwide might freeze payments to or from it, cutting off its access to global money flows.

Sanctions aren’t just country-wide they can target specific groups (like a company funding illegal activities) or even individuals (say, a terrorist financier).

These lists are dynamic, too. A criminal banned in one country might still operate elsewhere. The sanctions can be lifted if situations change.

Governments and institutions constantly update their lists. Compliance isn’t a one-time checkbox—it’s an ongoing game of keeping up with who’s blocked today and who might be unblocked tomorrow. Given below is the list of sanctions applications used in the industry today

The systems mentioned above cannot function independently. They rely on sanction entity data to perform checks on transactions. The sanctions data is provided by global institutions responsible for maintaining and updating sanctions information.

One such famous system is the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which manages and enforces sanctions programs. Like the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), institutions worldwide are responsible for maintaining and enforcing sanctions. Below is a list of key organizations