The End of American Power - The Colder War

The SWIFT system was created in 1973 in Brussels, Belgium to coincide with the Petrodollar agreement made between Henry Kissinger and the House of Saud (OPEC) that same year. It established the central focal point for all oil sales to be done using the American currency, and was the asset replacement for the dollar and reserve currency forged after President Richard Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard in 1971.

Russian authorities wanted to decrease the financial market’s dependence on SWIFT since the introduction of the first U.S. sanctions, when international payment systems Visa and MasterCard denied services to some Russian banks owned by blacklisted individuals.

According to Shuvalov, Russia has been also discussing establishment of an independent ratings agency with China. Concrete proposals will be made by the end of 2014, he said.

As regards China’s payment system UnionPay cooperation with the yet-to-be-established Russian national payment system, Shuvalov said that UnionPay is ready for a full-scale collaboration and will provide all infrastructural capacities for that. - TASS

http://www.examiner.com/article/end-of-dollar-russia-and-china-works-to-create-new-swift-system 

Demise of the Petrodollar and the End of American Power - The Colder War by Marin Katusa

Published on Nov 25, 2014

Purchase Marin Katusa's blockbuster New York Times best selling book, "The Colder War: How the Global Energy Trade Slipped from America's Grasp" at http://www.colderwar.com/.