About half of all high value payments across borders go through swift. It links more than 11 thousand banks in 200 plus countries. When you're moving money around the world, the message is everything. And without a system that lets all the banks and institutions easily send these messages to each other, it becomes very difficult to transfer money between countries.
The US and EU are denying a handful of Russian banks access to SWIFT, a key tool in the global financial system.
This episode was produced by Miles Bryan, edited by Matt Collette, engineered by Efim Shapiro, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, and hosted by Noel King.
Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained
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