Russia's Sberbank Sees Major Scope for India-Russia CBDC Trade Settlements
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NEW DELHI, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Russia's biggest bank sees major opportunities for India-Russia bilateral trade settlements through central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), its CEO said.
Trade settlement in CBDCs is much more efficient, Sberbank CEO German Gref told reporters in New Delhi on Friday.
Sberbank, which has been in India for the last 16 years, has been using surplus rupees to support liquidity, including investments in Indian government securities, Gref said.
«We need it to support our liquidity, and we are doing that,» he said at a press briefing in New Delhi, noting the growing use of instruments such as equity and government securities in India.
The bank plans a New Delhi business hub by 2028 and is developing a bilateral IT platform to connect Indian and Russian companies. It aims to boost Indian exports to narrow what it called a roughly $50 billion trade imbalance, Gref said.
(Reporting by Nikunj Ohri and Manoj Kumar, writing by Shanima Aniyeri; Editing by YP Rajesh and Alexander Smith)