Iran Urges ACU Partners to Drop the Dollar From Bilateral Trade

Members of the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) – a nine-member  group of central banks including those of India, Pakistan and Iran – are to launch a new cross-border financial messaging system in the coming weeks, as an alternative to the main existing international network Swift.
According to officials from Iran – which currently chairs the body – the members of the bloc agreed at a meeting in  Tehran on May 24 that they would set up the new system within a month, Forbes reported.
“The [ACU] countries decided to have a customized system for themselves, considering that Swift is not available to all countries and given that it has its own costs,” said Central Bank of Iran deputy governor Mohsen Karimi, in comments reported by the Iranian media last week.