Doesn’t really matter does it? Belgium was a founding member of the EU, and still strongly supports it. There’s a reason why Belgium has been at the centre of the debate around frozen Russian assets, if they really didn’t care, they would just release the funds and wash their hands of the whole affair.
That is not how SWIFT works at all. SWIFT is basically a peer to peer financial network between banks. Any bank can send any amount of money to any other bank, without any kind of approval from the US, provided they have an appropriate common facility. Which could be anything from both banks having accounts at a different common bank, or both banks holding accounts at a common national bank, which allows them to transact directly.
Pretty sure I saw an article describing some approval process. While trying to find it I found references to FATCA, TFTP, and some reporting by the NYT
Last I checked Belgium was a member of the EU. Heck Brussels, generally considered the de-facto “capital” of the EU, is in Belgium.
It’s pretty hard to get more hardcore EU than Belgium.
You should go to Brussels and say that sometime ;) The EU quarter is quite different from the rest of the city.
Doesn’t really matter does it? Belgium was a founding member of the EU, and still strongly supports it. There’s a reason why Belgium has been at the centre of the debate around frozen Russian assets, if they really didn’t care, they would just release the funds and wash their hands of the whole affair.
Aren't all SWIFT transactions over a certain amount routed to the US for approval?
That is not how SWIFT works at all. SWIFT is basically a peer to peer financial network between banks. Any bank can send any amount of money to any other bank, without any kind of approval from the US, provided they have an appropriate common facility. Which could be anything from both banks having accounts at a different common bank, or both banks holding accounts at a common national bank, which allows them to transact directly.
Pretty sure I saw an article describing some approval process. While trying to find it I found references to FATCA, TFTP, and some reporting by the NYT
https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/23/washington/23intel.html
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