The People'sBank of China authorized Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (Moscow) JSCto become a Chinese yuan clearing bank in Russia, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation said Sept. 23.

The authorization is the result of a memorandum ofunderstanding signed between the two central banks in June 2016.

Russia's central bank said the availability of yuan liquidityon the Russian market will secure smooth settlements of yuan-denominatedtransactions and strengthen Russia's position as a regional financial hub foryuan transactions in the Eurasian Economic Union.

Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (Moscow) is a unitof Industrial & CommercialBank of China Ltd.