Moscow Exchange opens currency market to Eurasian banks

Eurasian banks will not have to get a Russian currency license to trade. A license of their own national regulating authority will do.

Representatives of the Moscow Exchange arranged a presentation of this integration project in Astana on 26 June as part of the roundtable session held to discuss prospects and opportunities of the integrated currency market for banks residing in the CIS states. "By now we are done searching for arguments in favor of integrating the financial markets. The united financial market of the Single Economic Space countries will allow attracting resources to finance needs of the private business and balanced positioning against competition that world and regional financial centers pose," stressed EDB Analysis Office Head Ella Baibikova during the roundtable session.

During the discussion it was noted that the integrated currency market provides for mutual access of the participants to the markets of the Single Economic Space countries and other interested countries in the CIS region (SES+). The integrated currency market also provides for creating conditions to enable direct quotations and mutual transactions between foreign trade participants using national currencies. Experts believe that the access of participants from SES+ countries to the integrated exchange market can contribute to the growth of liquidity while direct quotations in national currencies will reduce currency conversion costs for foreign trade participants, BelTA reports.

The Moscow Exchange is Russia's and Eastern Europe's largest exchange holding company. It was founded in December 2011 in a merger of the exchange groups MICEX and RTS. The Moscow Exchange is in the world's top 20 platforms in terms of trade in securities, the total capitalization of the stock in trade, and is in the world's top ten exchanges that trade in derivative financial instruments.

The Eurasian Development Bank is an international financial institution founded by Russia and Kazakhstan in January 2006 with a view to assisting the development of market economies of the member states while facilitating their sustainable economic growth and expanding their mutual trade and economic ties. The EDB's charter capital exceeds $1.5 billion. Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan are members of the EDB. The EDB has been cooperating with Belarusian banks since 2010. Since then the bank has financed export and import operations and projects of the small and medium enterprises of clients of Belarusian banks to the tune of over $180 million.