OREANDA-NEWS. May 06, 2013. Agricultural Bank of China Limited (ABC) signed a Strategic Cooperation Memorandum with Savings Bank of the Russian Federation (Sberbank). Both parties agreed on establishing closer cooperation in trade finance, RMB and RUB settlement, recommendation of “going global” customers, financial market, capital market, mutual support for overseas institution development, experience sharing, information sharing, and personnel exchange. Both banks aim at providing Chinese and Russian customers with high-quality cross-border financial services. ABC’s President Zhang Yun and Sberbank’s CEO and President German Gref signed the Memorandum on behalf of the two parties.

Sberbank is the largest bank in Russia, playing a key role in Russia’s banking system. It is also ABC’s most important business partner in Russia. At present, Sberbank’s assets account for 28.9% of the total assets of the Russian banking industry, while its deposits account for 45.7% of the total residential deposits of all Russian banks. Additionally, Sberbank accounts for up to 33.6% corporate loans and 32.7% retail loans in Russia. Sberbank has 18 regional headquarters and over 600 branches with 20,000 sub-branches and 240,000 employees in Russia.

ABC established a correspondent banking relationship with Sberbank in the 1990s and has been jointly providing SMEs and personal customers with financial services such as border trade settlement and trade finance. The signing of the Memorandum further expands cooperative fields between the two parties and raises the level of cooperation. This deepening of banking ties significantly promotes Sino-Russia financial cooperation and is an important initiative in economic and trade exchange between the two countries.

By establishing a closer strategic partnership with Sberbank, ABC will better leverage the unique branch network, rich customer resources, and advanced services and products of both banks in two countries. It will provide comprehensive and multiple financial services for Sino-Russia cooperation in strategic industries such as energy, mineral and agriculture and promote the sound and stable development of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries. Further, ABC continues to conscientiously propel China to establish a diversified, balanced, safe and efficient open economy featuring mutual benefit and win-win results.