TEHRAN: Iran said that it has completed the preparations for establishing a joint bank account with Russia to facilitate trade between the two countries in their own currencies.
Valiollah Seif, the governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), told a visiting Russian delegation that both Tehran and Moscow need to create a mechanism to connect their banking sectors, stressing that this is necessary for bolstering trade ties between the two countries.
Seif said a special committee should be set up between Iran and Russia to identify the current obstacles that are preventing the expansion of their mutual banking relations.
He also said that a technical team also needs to be formed to activate mechanisms for providing credit lines between Iran and Russia.
Iran’s Ambassador to Russian Mehdi Sanaei said in late January that Tehran and Moscow are working on a plan to switch their bilateral trade to national currencies for which he said the two countries will create a joint bank or a mutual account.
“Both sides plan to create a joint bank, or joint account, so that payments may be made in Rubles and Rials and there is an agreement to create a working group [for this],” said Sanaei.
Also, Assadollah Asgaroladi, a veteran Iranian merchant and the chairman of Iran-Russia Joint Chamber of Commerce, said the bank could break the domination of Western currencies over bilateral exchanges and that it would eventually open a new chapter in trade relations between Tehran and Moscow.
Later in March, Iran and Russia signed a basic agreement to create a joint regulation body to oversee interbank financial transactions between the two countries.
The agreement – that was signed between the Iranian and Russian central banks – took both countries one step closer toward the establishment of the promised joint bank – which is believed to have been specifically designed to help dodge the effects of US-led sanctions on the two countries.
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