MOSCOW, September 4 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian Finance Ministry has decided to introduce a legislative project that would regulate the SWIFT payment system, as well as regulate the news agencies Bloomberg and Reuters, clumping them together as “operators of critical infrastructure services,” according to a notification published on the country’s legal acts portal Thursday.
“The understanding of ‘operator of critical infrastructure services’ and ‘operator of critical-significant infrastructure services’ are nonexistent in Russian legislation, and setting up the requirements for performing the activity and responsibility for inadequate purveyance of informational services of the aforementioned operators are not regulated,” the Finance Ministry noted.
According to the ministry the lack of regulation could cause risk of actual damage from the operators of cash transfers or operators of payment systems. The ministry suggests amendments to the law on national payment systems to include the definition of “operators of critical infrastructure services,” which SWIFT, Bloomberg, Reuters, and a range of other systems fall into.
