Addressing recent moves to impose international sanctionson Iran, SWIFT's CEO Lazaro Campos said that “the moment thewording is clear” on the European Union legislation now beingdrafted, the secure global financial messaging network will cut offthat country's central bank and other financial institutions. “Wewill disconnect and not wait for the approvals,” Campos told the400 attendees at the annual SWIFT Operations Forum Americas heldthis week in New York City.

“No one wants to be in the middle of a political discussion,”Campos acknowledged to the session moderator, NPR's DavidBrancaccio. “We want to work with every community,” Campos said.The Belgium-based messaging network that is integral in enablingfinancial institutions to move vast amounts of money around theworld was named recently in legislation both in Europe and the U.S.“The U.S and Europe are not that far apart. They want the sameoutcome,” Campos said.

Moving on to other topics, Campos spoke about how thecooperative has changed since 2007, “We were in denial,” he said ofthe financial industry's immediate post-financial crisis state. Nowthe operative word is “transformation, and in that transformationwe really do not know where we are heading, so we need to beprepared for a world that is changing every day.”