NEW DELHI: Besides, sources said the meeting to be attended by other stakeholders, including senior officials of External Affairs and commerce ministries, will review the progress made on this front so far.
The Finance Ministry has called a meeting of CEOs (Chief Executive Officers) of banks, including top six private sector lenders, on December 5 to discuss ways to promote cross-border trade in the rupee instead of the US dollar.
Besides, sources said the meeting to be attended by other stakeholders, including senior officials of External Affairs and Commerce Ministries, will review the progress made on this front so far.
Financial Services Secretary Vivek Joshi will be chairing the meeting and is also likely to see attendance from representatives of the Reserve Bank of India and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), sources said.
Following detailed guidelines from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on cross-border trade transactions in domestic currency in July, about nine special vostro accounts have been opened with two Indian banks to facilitate overseas trade in the rupee.
Sberbank and VTB Bank — the largest and second-largest banks of Russia, respectively — are the first foreign lenders to receive the approval after the RBI announced the guidelines.
RBI as per the guidelines decided to put in place an additional arrangement for invoicing, payment, and settlement of exports/imports in INR.
Another Russian bank Gazprom, which does not have its bank in India, has also opened this account with Kolkata-based UCO Bank.