MOSCOW - Russia's trade with India is booming and bilateral payments are proceeding smoothly without the glitches that have been hampering trade with other countries, Anatoly Popov, deputy CEO of Russia's largest lender, Sberbank, told Reuters.
Sberbank's branch in India has offices in Delhi and Mumbai, as well as an IT centre in Bangalore. The number of staff in its Indian offices increased by 150% this year, having said in April they wanted to hire 300 IT personnel for the hub in Bangalore. Sberbank said transactions in roubles and rupees are proceeding smoothly, with 90% of them taking only a few hours to complete. This is in stark contrast to other trading partners such as China.
He said that India, the world's fifth largest economy, had almost everything Russian importers were looking for. He thanked Indian regulators for the opportunity to operate through rupee-denominated"vostro" accounts, which domestic banks can hold on behalf of foreign banks in India, facilitating their operations.