Moscow Exchange to start trading Japanese yen, Turkish lira in 2018

The Moscow Exchange plans to start trading the Japanese yen and the Turkish lira against the Russian rouble next year, the head of currency market development at the exchange said on Friday.

The Moscow Exchange is gradually expanding a list of currencies it trades, in line with the Kremlin’s ambitions to increase the rouble’s role on the global market.

Dmitry Piskulov told Reuters the exchange will offer the yen-rouble pair in early 2018. The lira-rouble pair will be available in mid-2018, he said.

Piskulov said the decision to start trading the Turkish currency was driven by “political process” and market demand as Turkey and Russia are trading partners.

“This is the de-dollarisation of foreign trade and international economic relations,” Piskulov said.

The exchange, previously known as Micex-RTS, now trades the Russian rouble against the dollar, the euro, the British pound, the Swiss franc, the on-shore and off-shore Chinese yuan, the Belarussian rouble and the Kazakh tenge.

The Moscow Exchange, which also trades the euro/dollar pair, suspended trading in the rouble against the Ukrainian hryvnia in August due to poor demand as relations Moscow and Kiev worsened.

Piskulov said that in the future the Moscow Exchange would consider trading Vietnamese dong for roubles, adding that there were some restrictions for the instrument because of Vietnamese currency regulation. (Source: Reuters)