Japan joins the EU, Canada, US, and UK in banning Russian access to SWIFT global banking services

Japan is blocking Russian access to the international banking system.

The European Union, Canada, the UK, and the US will join Japan in removing Russian banks from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication services.

Japan will send $100 million in emergency humanitarian aid funding to Ukraine, as well as place further sanctions on Russian officials. The full G7 is now on board with the ban.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement on Sunday that the US is in favor of isolating Russia from the international financial system.

Following Japan's announcement, the entire G7 now supports disconnecting selected Russian banks from SWIFT, restrictions on the Russian Central Bank, and sanctioning key Russian leaders, including President Putin.

The Government of Japan has been a leader in condemning President Putin's attack on Ukraine and we will continue working closely together to impose further severe costs and make Putin's war of choice a strategic failure.

Banks communicate with each other on financial matters on the large-scale global platform of SWIFT. It connects more than 11,000 financial services companies across 200 countries and territories and hosts an average of 42 million messages a day.

The leaders of the EU, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, the UK, and the US wrote in a joint statement that they plan to hold Russia to account and ensure that this war is a failure for Putin.

They said they are prepared to take further measures to hold Russia to account for its attack on Ukraine.