OREANDA-NEWS. On 15 October Moscow Exchange CEO Alexander Afanasiev welcomed a delegation to Exchange headquarters headed by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) Chairman Jiang Jianqing.

Moscow Exchange and ICBC discussed strengthening cooperation between the two organisations and the implementation of new services for investors on the Chinese and Russian markets. The parties noted that cooperation between Moscow Exchange and ICBC has led to the increased use of the yuan and ruble for settlement by companies from the two countries. They also expressed interest in signing an extensive agreement to substantially strengthen cooperation between the two organisations.

"We are pleased with the years of mutually beneficial collaboration with Moscow Exchange, and stand ready to further develop ties for the benefit of the Russian and Chinese financial systems. Our joint goal is the active use of our national currencies for settlement of trade between our countries. We continue to work to expand the line of instruments denominated in these currencies to meet the demands of clients of the bank and the exchange," said Mr. Jianquing.

Mr. Afanasiev said: "We greatly value cooperation with China's largest bank. Over the last four years we have developed an effective model of cooperation in developing exchange instruments using national currencies. The ICBC is a market maker in all yuan-denominated Moscow Exchange instruments. We are pleased that the bank has expressed readiness to be a liquidity provider for the soon to be launched HKD/RUB currency pair.

"We plan to expand our cooperation going forward, which will benefit both organisations, strengthen Russo-Chinese trade relations and boost development of the financial markets of both countries," said Mr. Afanasiev.

Cooperation between Moscow Exchange and the ICBC began in 2010, when CNY/RUB trading was launched on the Exchange. This was preceded by substantial preparatory work, in which the ICBC was directly involved. One result of this cooperation has been the significant recent growth in CNY trading volumes on Moscow Exchange: turnover grew tenfold YoY in the first nine months of 2014, reaching CNY 7 bln (RUB 43.3 bln) in September.