TEHRAN- During the 6th meeting of Iran-Russia banking and financial group in Tehran the two sides signed an MOU on expansion of bilateral ties, the official website of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) reported.

The MOU was inked by Deputy Governor of Central Bank of Iran for International Affairs Hossein Yaghoubi Miab and Deputy Governor of Russian Federation Central Bank Dmitry Skobelkin, the report said.

Hosted by CBI, some senior officials from Iranian and Russian banks took part in the event as well.

Addressing the meeting, Yaghoubi Miab expressed hope that the meeting would facilitate developing mutual banking ties, saying that such ties would increase trade exchanges between the two countries.

The Iranian banking official referred to the Iranian and Russian presidents' emphasis on bolstering bilateral economic and trade ties informing that Iran's exports to Russia stood at $286 million and imports from that country at $704 million in the last Iranian year 1396 (ended on March 20, 2018).

The figure is not satisfying regarding the two countries targets, he lamented.

He, therefore, called for removal of the existing barriers on the way of boosting banking relations and easing expansion of trade exchanges.

Skobelkin, for his part, underlined the significance of improving common banking ties as a means for further trade ties saying that some 24 Iranian credit and banking institutes have established banking relations with seven Russian banks.

He announced Russian Central Bank’s readiness for removing all obstacles to development of banking ties between the two countries.

HJ/MA