Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment has she made of the potential merits of removing Russia from the SWIFT international banking system.

The Foreign Secretary announced the largest and most severe package of economic sanctions for Russia.

The UK and others have committed to removing selected Russian banks from SWIFT and alongside the US and EU the UK is targeting Central Bank of the Russian Federation (CBR) to prevent it from using its international reserves to undermine the impact of our sanctions.

On 1 March, new legislation will be laid in parliament on financial measures including sovereign debt, clearing and securities measures and trade measures including export controls on dual use high-tech products.

The financial measures will prevent Russian banks from clearing payments in sterling and will apply to Russia's largest bank - Sberbank. They will also prevent the Russian state from raising debt in the UK and will isolate all Russian companies - of which there are over three million - from access to UK capital markets.