OREANDA-NEWS. Moscow Exchange and Bank of China have signed a cooperation agreement aimed at expanding collaboration between the Russian and Chinese financial markets.

Bank of China President Chen Siqing and Moscow Exchange CEO Alexander Afanasiev signed the agreement during an official visit between the Chinese and Russian Prime Ministers.

"This bilateral agreement on strategic cooperation between Bank of China and Moscow Exchange will help to expand clearing and settlement transactions in our countries' national currencies. Bank of China and Moscow Exchange will implement the projects outlined in the agreement, as well as expand the existing CNY product line. Bank of China (Eluosi) in Russia, with support from the head office, will continue its cooperation with Moscow Exchange," said the CEO of Bank of China (Eluosi)[1] Zhao Lianjie.

"The cooperation agreement between Moscow Exchange and Bank of China will take our collaboration to a new level, helping to develop the Russian and Chinese capital markets. Together we plan to create new products, including derivatives instruments. Moscow Exchange and Bank of China will work together on programmes that will allow Russian and Chinese investors to use a wider array of financial instruments denominated in the Russian ruble and the Chinese yuan (CNY). This will help us to meet demand from our clients, who are increasingly using these national currencies for international trade and on global financial markets. Growing CNY trading volumes on the Moscow Exchange are further evidence of this - CNY trading in September reached

CNY 7 billion, with an average daily volume of CNY 331 million (RUB 2 billion)," said Moscow Exchange CEO Alexander Afanasiev.

Moscow Exchange and Bank of China began cooperating in 2010, when CNY/RUB trading was launched. The Bank acts as a market maker for all CNY instruments on the foreign exchange market, and actively supports new initiatives by the Exchange to develop this market. The partnership between Moscow Exchange and Bank of China is of exceptional importance for cooperation between the two countries' financial markets, and to encourage the use of national currencies in settlements between Chinese and Russian companies.