Banks of India and Russia agree on mutual settlements
Indian banks are negotiating with public non-sanctioned users to simplify the process of fungible settlements, informs edition of Economic time.
From the Indian side, the following are participating in the negotiations: Canara Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Uco Bank. According to ET, among the banks from the Russian side, the negotiations were attended by: St. Petersburg Socio-Commercial Bank, Zenit, Tatsotsbank, Centrocredit, Soyuz, MTS Bank and Gazprombank.
The banks participating in the meeting agreed on mutual correspondent relations: Indian banks will most likely open an account in rubles and vice versa.
The corresponding decision was made on the basis of determining the individual Indian level, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Bank of Russia and banks in New Delhi by weight. The meeting of officials and banks was aimed at creating a system that ensured that trade flows could be detected without revealing violations. The RBI is expected to issue a circular regulating bilateral interaction.
Previously, the Indian regulator has already agreed with the state corporation VEB on the creation of its own international transfer system for important mutual settlements.
After the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, Western sanctions blocked access to SWIFT international payment systems.
Earlier it became known that Russia and India use the Financial Messaging System (SPFS) of the Russian Central Bank for bilateral transactions in order to make settlements in rubles and rupees. About it wrote Bloomberg citing sources.
Under the proposed scheme, rubles would be held in an Indian bank account and then converted into rupees, and vice versa. In addition, Russia has offered cooperation to the national payment systems of the two countries – Mir and Unified Payment, the agency’s interlocutors said.