BERLIN - Suspending Russia from the SWIFT global interbank payments system would be technically difficult to arrange and would have a massive impact on transactions for Germany and German businesses in Russia, a German government spokesperson said.

Spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit added that Germany had not been the only country with reservations about cutting Russia off from SWIFT, saying Italy and France had some as well.

He added that a number of states had been against putting any sanctions on Russia related to oil and gas delivery and said Germany would be pleased if Switzerland would join in sanctions.

The SWIFT system is a global network used by almost all financial institutions worldwide to wire sums of money to each other and is a cornerstone of the international payments system.

  - Reuters