Ambassador: Indian banks wary of ruble-rupee mechanism

NEW DELHI, Feb 6 (PRIME) -- Indian banks are very cautious about using local currencies in the country’s trade with Moscow, Russian ambassador to India Denis Alipov said in a conference on Monday.

“Vostro accounts were created, and the ruble-rupee trade mechanism was established. Now it depends on the banks that use it. But we see that many Indian banks are too cautious. The ruble-rupee mechanism will not cause any restrictions, secondary restrictions from the U.S., but the banks are still too wary of it,” he said.

It is unlikely that the restriction of Russia’s access to the SWIFT interbank exchange system will be lifted any time soon, so the two countries will have to use new trade mechanisms. Nothing restricts countries from using the U.S. dollars and euros in Russian banks that have not been sanctioned or from using currencies of third countries in bilateral trade, he said.

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