TEHRAN - Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Mohammadreza Farzin said a monetary contract has been signed between Tehran and Moscow for carrying out bilateral trade exchanges.

Farzin told reporters on Saturday that he and his Russian counterpart had a meeting in Saint Petersburg last Thursday where they finalized agreements already signed between the two countries.

During the meeting, the chief bankers of Iran and Russia also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on joint measures to be taken by the two countries for the expansion of economic and monetary ties.

According to Farzin the new monetary contract enables Iran and Russia to trade in local currencies.

He added that based on agreements between the specialized delegations of the two countries, Iran’s Shetab banking system will link Russia’s MIR interbank system by the end of August.

The official said that the new scheme would allow Iranian nationals to take ruble from Russian ATMs using their Iranian banking cards.

"During the meeting, the two sides finalized the requirements to connect Russia’s Mir payment system to Iran’s Shetab and this project has entered the operational phase," Farzin said.

He added that the scheme will further develop in the next phases to allow Russian nationals to use their banking cards in Iranian ATMs and will then enable using Iranian cards at the Russian poses.

"The second stage [involves the possibility of] paying with Russian citizens’ cards in Iran," Farzin said, adding that in the third stage, Iranians will be able to pay with a Shetab card in Russian stores via an ordinary bank terminal.

In April 2024, the Iranian Foreign Ministry announced that the project to use Mir cards had entered the implementation stage. In May 2022, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said that the countries were discussing how to connect the Mir and Shetab payment systems.

EF/