Vostro and Nostro Accounts

In News 

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed the opening of nine Special Vostro Accounts with two Indian lenders — UCO and IndusInd Bank — to facilitate overseas trade in rupee.

About Vostro account 

• It is an account that a domestic bank holds for a foreign bank in the domestic bank’s currency — which, in the case of India, is the rupee. 
• In the case of trade with Russia, payments in rupee for the export and import of goods will go to these Vostro accounts. The owners and beneficiaries of this money will be the exporters and importers in both the countries. 
• The banks will keep the record of money transferred.

What led to creation of the Vostro accounts?

• In July , the RBI put in place a mechanism to settle international trade in rupees “in order to promote growth of global trade with emphasis on exports from India and to support the increasing interest of the global trading community in the rupee”.
• The central bank’s move has come in the wake of increasing pressure on the Indian currency in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and sanctions by the US and the EU.

Source:IE