OREANDA-NEWS. VTB Bank has become the first Russian bank to receive full access to China’s interbank bond market. VTB in cooperation with Bank of China developed the required full-scale infrastructure to start trading operations on this market. The People’s Bank of China issued the relevant licence to VTB Bank last year.

VTB has signed agency and settlement agreements with Bank of China and has opened special settlement accounts and depository accounts with China Central Depository & Clearing Co (CCDC) and Shanghai Clearing House (SHCH), as well as account with China Foreign Exchange Trading System (CFETS). Operational testing of this infrastructure is currently in final stage.

China’s domestic bond market is the third largest market globally in terms of issued debt securities. It is worth the equivalent of more than USD 5 trillion. Access to secondary market trading will help VTB Bank increase the number of its local counterparties and will also boost Russia-China financial cooperation by allowing VTB Bank to buy debt securities of local Chinese issuers.