According to a report from The New Indian Express, India has signed a deal to adopt Moscow’s SPFS system for banking payments to Russia.
The Narendra Modi government signed a significant deal with the Vladimir Putin administration last week where India agreed to adopt the Russian financial messaging system, Service Bureau of Financial Messaging System of the Bank of Russia (SPFS), for making banking payments to Russia, reports The New Indian Express.
The landmark agreement was signed between external affairs minister S. Jaishankar and visiting Russian deputy prime minister Denis Manturov on April 18 in New Delhi, said the newspaper. The deal also allows acceptance of Indian Ru-Pay cards and India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in Russia, and the Russian MIR cards and its Fast Payments System (FPS) in India.
According to Bloomberg, about $2 billion in payments from India to Russia is stuck over the last year, and Russia has decided to stop supplying credit for about $10 billion worth of spare parts as well as the two S-400 missile-defence system batteries that are yet to be delivered.
In a tweet reply, Anand Mahindra hinted at the possibility of Mahindra allowing the purchase of automobiles with Bitcoin in India in the future.