OREANDA-NEWS. October 29, 2012. A Sberbank delegation headed by Andrey Donskikh, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board, visit China between, reported the press-centre of Sberbank.

Sberbank has been visited by a number of heads of China’s leading banks over the last year, amongst the issues discussed were wider global economic issues as well as specific aspects of bilateral cooperation and significant co-operation agreements were signed over the course of the meetings. On its visit to China Sberbank will look to develop these agreements and hold further discussions on a wider ranging co-operation in a number of key areas.

Sberbank is Russia’s leading international financial institution with operations in Russia, CIS, Europe and Asia. Cooperation with Chinese financial institutions is a key part of Sberbank’s international strategy - in 2010 a representative office of the Sberbank was opened in Beijing.

Analysts estimate that trade volumes between Russia and China will reach USD90 billion by the end of 2012. The scale of trade presents a range of opportunities within the banking industry, including increasing the quality of settlement services for  trade customers in rubles and yuan, as well as boosting the volume of trade, export finance and trade finance transactions. Potential growth can also be seen in project finance, investment banking and transactions in global capital markets.

"Cooperation with Chinese banks for us is a core objective for Sberbank,” said Andrew Donskikh, “Internationally, Russia and China are strategic partners and at a time when the world is feeling the impact of political and economic crisis the successful cooperation of Sberbank and China’s major banks can be an illustration of the positive impact of joint efforts by Russia and China."