Vostro and Nostro Accounts - Current Affairs

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.

Do You Know ?

There are two kinds of accounts: Vostro and Nostro
- Both Vostro and Nostro are technically the same type of account, with the difference being who opens the account and where.

So, if an Indian bank like the SBI wants to open an account in the United States, it will get in touch with a bank in the US, which will open a Nostro account and accept payments for SBI in dollars.
- The account opened by the Indian bank in the US will be a Nostro account for the Indian bank, while for the US bank, the account will be considered a Vostro account.
- Literally, Nostro means ‘ours’ and Vostro means ‘yours’ in Latin. Therefore, the accounts opened by IndusInd and UCO are Vostro, and the ones opened by Russia’s Sberbank and VTB Bank are Nostro accounts

Source:IE

Previous article Online Safety of Women

Next article Rhodes Scholarship