OREANDA-NEWS. June 15, 2012. State Corporation ‘Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank)’ and Banco Central del Ecuador (BCE) signed an interbank agreement on establishing correspondent relations.

On behalf of Vnesheconombank the Agreement was signed by Director of Financial Institutions Department Alexandr Zelenov and on behalf of BCE – by its General Manager Ruth Arregui Solano.

The agreement aims to establish correspondent relations between the two financial institutions. The agreement provides for opening an account of Ecuador’s bank with Vnesheconombank and specifies a procedure for making payments under projects and contracts of Russian organizations with Ecuador’s companies as well as for placing financial resources of Banco Central del Ecuador on the Russian market.

Ecuador is one of Russia’s promising partners in Latin America; trade turnover between the two countries reaches 1 billion US dollars. Recently trade and economic cooperation with Russia has been among the Ecuadorian Government’s priorities.

In October of 2009, Roseximbank (Vnesheconombank Group), Inter RAO UES and Ecuadorian Energy Company HIDROTOAP E.P. signed a protocol of cooperation in electric power engineering. The first project was a contract for the supply of electromechanical equipment for the construction of the Toachi-Pilaton hydropower station, under which Roseximbank issued a guarantee in the amount of 123 million US dollars for a period of 12 years and a syndicate comprised of Vnesheconombank, Roseximbank, Gazprombank, the Russian Commercial Bank (Cyprus) and Gazprombank (Switzerland) Ltd extended a credit for the project’s implementation.